
Class _lpij.^'__ 
Book_^.L-4-2 

SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



/ 



STANDARD ALPHABET. 



7i ^ C^trnJ^^'-ih-Mj^ '/iL^\ 



/^ 



Ji.Mi 



f^ tL^J^-^-e^^ 




STANDARD ALPHABET 



FOR 



REDUC1N(} UNWEITTEN LANGUAGES AND EOEEIGN 
GRAPHIC SYSTEMS 



TO A 



UNIFORM ORTHOGRAPHY IN EUROPEAN LETTERS 



BY 0. R. LEPSIUS, D. PH. & D.D. 

PROF. AT THE UNIVERSITY, AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY, BERLIN. 



RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION BY 
THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



h^ 



^"l 



SECOND EDITION. 



LONDON. 

WILLIAMS &NORGATE, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN. 

BEELIN. 

W. H E R T Z , BEHRENSTRASSE 7. 
1863. 






\^ 



k^ 



ADVEETISEMENT 

TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The need of a fixed system of orthography induced several of 
the missionary societies of London, a few years ago, to agree 
upon "Rules of reducing unwritten languages to alphabetical 
writing in Roman characters." These Rules, though imperfect, 
have been already applied with success to several African lan- 
guages. The societies were assisted in this work by the late 
Professor Lee of Cambridge, by Mr.* Norris of London, and by 
Professor Lepsius of Berlin ; but feeling it to be necessary for 
the establishment of any Standard system that an alphabet should 
be presented in a more complete form, and that the scientific 
principles should be explained upon which it was constructed. 
Professor Lepsius, at their request, kindly undertook this 
work, and has furnished the following admirable treatise, which 
will prove, it is hoped, an invaluable help to missionaries. The 
clear and scientific exhibition of vocal sounds which it contains 
will relieve Missionaries from many of their first difficulties in 
studying a foreign language, and will spare future translators 
much painful uncertainty respecting the powers of the letters 
which they employ. It has therefore been adopted by the 
Church Missionary Society as A Standard Alphabet. 

It is not expected that those who have already adopted a 
different system of orthography will at once conform to all the 



IV ADVERTISEMENT. 

recommendations of Professor Lepsius, and in some minor 
points the genius of a language may possibly require a departure 
from the general standard. But such exceptions need not annul 
the standard character of this alphabet as one to which all 
parties may refer. Attention is particularly directed to the ob- 
servations of Professor Lepsius upon this point at page 23 (45). 

Founts of letters and matrixes are provided for printing ac- 
cording to this alphabet, and though its adoption may thus 
involve in the first instance some trouble and expense^ these 
v^^ill be comiterbalanced by the great and permanent advantage 
of a fixed orthography. 

The object of this treatise concerns not only missionaries, but 
also the interests of the natives whose language is to be reduced 
to writing. It is most desirable that a nation should be furnished 
with an alphabet combining simplicity and precision to the 
utmost degree in which they are attainable. The art of reading 
will be thus greatly facilitated, and the natives will themselves 
teach one another to read and write without the perpetual aid 
of European teachers. In illustration of this remark, we may 
refer to the following instances: — In West Africa the Vei 
tribe invented a syllabic alphabet, in which every sign had its 
fixed sound, and the people taught one another to write without 
the aid of European teachers or the knowledge of European 
alphabets. Similar instances of natives teaching one another to 
read and write by a syllabic alphabet have occurred among the 
Indians in America. In New Zealand a very simple alphabet 
was carefully prepared by Professor Lee, and many tribes 
learned to read and write by the help of instructed natives 
before they were visited by Europeans. 



ADVERTISEMENT, V 

In respect of Africa it is especially important to take every 
step which may facilitate the mutual instruction, and supersede 
the labours of European teachers. In this way only can we 
hope for the Evangelization of that vast continent. 

It is a matter of much satisfaction , that in this, as in other 
instances, science lends its aid to the Christian zeal of mis- 
sionaries for communicating to mankind the highest benefits; 
and the work is commended under this aspect to the blessing 
of Almighty God for the furtherance of the Kingdom of Christ 
among: the nations of the earth. 



H. VENN, B.D. Hon. Sec. 
J. CHAPMAN , B.D. Sec , 

Late Missionary in Soutli India, and Prin- 
cipal of the Syrian College, Travancore^ 

H. STRAITH, Hon. Lay Sec. 
C. GRAHAM, Lay Sec, 

Late Persian Interpreter to the Com- 
mander-in-Chief in India. 



Church 

Missionary 
Society. 



Having been concerned in the preparation of the Rules, (fee, 

referred to above, which have been successfully employed in 

our West African languages — where the want of a uniform 

system was especially felt, — we express our cordial approval 

of this treatise, in which Professor Lepsius clearly explains 

the scientific principles upon which a standard alphabet must 

be constructed, and renders it, in its complete form, capable 

of the most extensive application. 

JOHN BEECH AM, D.D. Sec. ] Wesleyan 

ELIJAH HOOLE, Sec, \ Missionary 

Formerly Missionary in South India. J Society, 



a2 



VI ADVERTISEMENT. 

(Extract from a letter to the author.) 
Societe der Missions Evangeliques. 

Paris le 7 juin 1855. 

5,J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que dans sa seance men- 
suelle d'hier, le Comite de la Societe des Missions a 
decide d'envoyer a nos Missionaires au Slid de I'Afriqiie le 
^'•Standard Alphabet'''' et de recommander a leur plus serieuse 
attention le systeme qui est propose pour arriver a une ma- 
niere uniforme d'ecrire les langues etrangeres qui n'ont point 
encore de litterature. 

En outre, il desire vivement qu'apres avoir etudie ce systeme 
les Missionaires de notre Societe puissent en faire Fapplication 
a la langue Sechuana. 

II serait utile pour cela, que notre Comite put avoir une 
vingtaine d'exemplaires de la traduction anglaise du Standard 
Alphabet^ pour les envoyer au Sud de FAfrique." 

Au nom du Comite: 
GRANDPIERRE, 

Directeur. 



London Missionary Society. 

London, June 28^^ 1855. 
The. importance of the object proposed by Dr. Lepsius will 
be deeply felt by every individual conversant in any degree 
vrith the difficulties to be encountered in the formation of a 
language previously unwritten, and with the want of har- 
mony which has hitherto been found in such attempts. I can- 



ADVERTISEMENT. VII 

not therefore but rejoice in the result of Dr. L.'s close and 
profound attention to this subject, as exhibited in his pamphlet 
and I most earnestly hope that it may greatly tend hereafter 
to secure substantial agreement, and if possible, uniformity 
in the practice of Christian Missionaries who are labouring to 
give the Word of God to tribes and nations among whom the 
symbols of thought have been previously unknown. 

ARTHUR TIDMAN, 

Foreign Secretary L. M. S. 



Moravian Missions. 

London, June 1855. 
I beg to give my cordial assent to the general principles 
which Professor Lepsius has so ably sketched in his Treatise. 
That the adoption of his system, however modified in some 
of its details, will be of the greatest service to Missionaries 
in every part of the world and especially to English Missio- 
naries, can hardly admit of a doubt. Had such a system been 
originally applied to the languages of the Greenlanders and 
Esquimaux and to those of the Indian tribes of North and South 
America, much uncertainty and difficulty would have been 

avoided. P. LA TROBE, 

Secretary in England to the 
Morayian Missions. 



Barmen, den 30. Juli 1855. 
Die Deputation der Rheinischen Missionsgesell- 
schaft erklart hiermit ihre Zustimmnng zu den von Herrn 
Prof. Lepsius in Berlin in seiner Schrift „das allgemeine lin- 



VIII ADVERTISEMENT. 

guistische Alphabet" niedergelegten Grundsatzen der Ortho- 

graphie und wird demgemafs ihre Missionare fiir deren lin- 

guistische Arbeiten instruiren. Namens der Deputation: 

Insp. WALLMANN. 

[Barmen, 30^^^ July 1855. The Committee of the Mis- 
sionary Society of the Rhine declares hereby its assent 
to the principles of Orthography laid down by Professor Lep- 
sius in his treatise on the Standard Alphabet, and will give 
directions accordingly to its Missionaries for their linguistic 
labours. For the Committee: Inspector Wall m an n.] 



Calw, Wiirtemberg, den 29. Oct. 1855. 

Der Unterzeichnete mufs, audi abgesehen von dem umsich- 

tigen Fleifs, womit dieses Standard Alphabet entworfen ist, 

schon um des harmonischen Zusammenwirkens willen , dringend 

wiinschen, dafs wenigstens auf diesem Theile des Missionsge- 

bietes Uniformitat zu Stande komme, und schliefst sich darum 

demselben mit Freuden an. 

Dr. CHR. G. BARTH, 

Vorstand des Calwer Verlags-Vereins. 

[Calw, Wurtemberg, 29^^ October 1855. The Undersigned, 
besides acknowledging the care and completeness of the views, 
upon which this Standard Alphabet is founded, cannot but 
earnestly desire for the sake of harmonious cooperation, that 
Uniformity may be attained at least in this part of the Mis- 
sionary field, and therefore begs to give it his cordial assent. 
Dr. Chr. G. Barth, Director of the Calw Publishing 
Union.] 



ADVERTISEMENT. IX 

Evangelische Missions-Gesell schaft zu Basel. 
Auszug aiis dem Protokoll vom 9. Nov, 1855. 

„Die Committee der evaDgelischen Missions- Gesellschaft hat 
„in Anerkenmmg der grofsen Wichtigkeit iibereinstimmen- 
„der Grundsatze bei Feststellung des Alphabets bisher nicht 
„geschriebener Sprachen besonders aiif dem Africanischea 
„Sprachgebiet beschlossen, das von Hrn. Prof. Dr. Lepsius in 
^Berlin aufgestellte System der Orthographie zu adoptiren und 
„den in ihrem Dienst stehenden Missionaren dasselbe zu all- 
„mahliger Einfiihrung zu empfehlen." 

Namens der Committee: 
JOSENHANS, 

Inspector. 

[Evangelical Mis^sionary Society at Basle. Extract 
from protocol of 9. November 1855. „The Committee of the 
Evangelical Missionary Society, acknowledging the great im- 
portance of uniform principles in fixing the Alphabet of pre- 
viously unwritten languages, particularly among the African 
races, has resolved to adopt the system of orthography pro- 
posed by Prof Dr. Lepsius of Berlin, and to recommend it 
to the Missionaries employed by this Society for gradual in- 
troduction." For the Committee: Josenhans, Inspector.] 



American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 

Missions. . 

Missionary House, Boston, 
June 20, 1856. 

The Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners 

for Foreign Missions have examined Dr. Lepsius's "Standard 



X ADVERTISEMENT. 

Alphabet for reducing unwritten languages and foreign graphic 
systems to a uniform orthography in European letters," and 
regard it as an advance upon the practice of Missionaries of 
this Board heretofore in reducing languages to writing; and we 
will gladly do what we can to secure its general adoption. 

R.ANDERSON,) 

S. B. TREAT , / Secretaries. 

S. L. POMROY, ) 



XI 



ADVEETISEMENT 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



A SECOND Edition of the English Version of the General 
Linguistic or Standard Alphabet is now offered to the pubhc. 
It has undergone complete and careful revision; several minor 
points heretofore left undecided, have been settled by the light 
of experience and in accordance with the judgment of many- 
distinguished scholars; and the Second Part, which exhibits 
synthetically its applicability to particular languages, has been 
much expanded and enriched. 

The Church Missionary Society adopted the Standard Al- 
phabet more than five years ago on conviction that it was 
theoretically the best. It appeared to be founded on clear 
scientific principles consistently carried out, and therefore 
simple — capable of easy comprehension and unlimited applica- 
tion. The interval has not disappointed their hopes. It has 
been applied successfully to at least fourteen African ^ and 
seven Asiatic^ languages, and the test of experience enables 
the Society to commend it now, with far more confidence than 
when it first appeared , to all classes of students of languages, 
whether altogether unwritten , or rendered too often practically 
inaccessible by the cumbrous local alphabets in which their 
literature is embedded. 



^ Aongla, Bornu, Ewe, Fula, Gd, Hausa, Herero, Ibo , Masai j Nama, 
Nubian , ISupe , Oji , Zulu. 

2 Turkmenian , Kurd, Kafari, Pas to, Siiidhi, Hahka- Chinese, Korean. 



XII ADVERTISEMENT. 

This Alphabet is available for two very different classes of 
readers— the European student, and the uncritical Native. For 
the former, whether traveller, missionary, or philologist, the 
whole apparatus of diacritical marks will be needed, and more 
especially for such works as Grammars, Praxes, Dictionaries, 
&c., where the object is technical and linguistic. For the 
latter, many of the diacritical marks may be dispensed with, 
or will gradually drop off of themselves; and the Alphabet 
readily admits of such simphfication, while preserving all its 
essential principles in their integrity. 

The Standard Alphabet may be regarded as already lord of 
the domain of Africa, where it has had to compete with but 
few conflicting systems of any importance , either European or 
native. In Asia, the difficulties are greater, but here too its 
advance is encouraging. To refer more especially to India, 
not only is the possibility and expedience of "Romanizing" 
still far from conceded by many oriental scholars, who are 
naturally attached to Alphabets which they have mastered at 
the cost ^ sojnuch labour, but ever since the opening of that 
great country to Europeans, attempts have been made, with 
more or less of system, to represent Hindu words and names 
in Roman letters. There is however only one scheme that 
can profess to compete v^ith that of Prof. Lepsius. Consider- 
able currency has been obtained in India for the system first 
propounded by Sir W. Jones, afterwards adopted with con- 
siderable modifications by Prof. Forbes and the late Prof. 
Wilson , and recently advocated with much earnestness by Sir 
C. Trevelyan and Prof. Monier Williams. The oriental student 
is much indebted to Sir C. Trevelyan for his weighty argu- 
ments in favour of the application of a Roman Alphabet to 
the languages of the East, which have never been met by a 
satisfactory answer 5 .but the particular system, which he re- 



ADVERTISEMENT, XIII 

commends, is far from perfect. This is not the place to enter 
into the objections which present themselves, but the many 
changes which this alphabet has successively undergone at the 
hands of Prof Wilson and others, and the further, changes 
still suggested by differe nt patrons of this alphabe t, show a 
want of complete confidence in it. The system of Prof. Lepsius 
is the result of many years' patient study as well as exten- 
sive practical experience ; it is based on philological principles 
and a careful analysis of all the sounds possible to the organs 
of the human voice; full advantage has been taken of the 
researches of Sanskrit Grammarians; and, wherever available, 
the most w^] dely received s ymbol s have been adopted and 
incorporated into it. These are no slight claims to atten- 
tion and cannot be overlooked by candid scholars. 

It was under the conviction of the great services already per- 
formed by this Alphabet, and its capabilities for much further 
usefulness, that the Committee of the Church Missionary So- 
ciety commissioned the writer of these lines to visit Berlin last 
autumn, and came to the following resolutions in consequence: — 

Extract from Proceedings of Committee. 

"The Rev. W. Knight reported his recent conference at 
Berlin, in company with the Rev. J. F. Schon, with Prof. 
Lepsius, respecting a final revision of the Standard Alphabet, 
and explained that the object had now been satisfactorily ac- 
complished by the preparation of a second Edition of the work, 
and that it was now desirable to take steps for the promotion 
of its general adoption by circulating a large Edition among 
the Society's and other Missionaries, and also amongst learned 
men likely to take an interest in the question, and by furnishing 
Founts of Types to such of the Mission Printing Presses as 
may be ready to employ them. 



XIV ADVERTISEMENT. 

Resolved — 1. That an English Edition of 1500 copies of the 
Standard Alphabet be printed at Berlin under the di- 
rection of Prof. Lepsiiis, for circulation as suggested. 
2. That the Secretary be authorized to urge upon 
the Missionaries of the Society the adoption of this 
I system of orthography, and that as soon as there shall 

\ appear in any of the Society's Mission Presses in India 

I or elsewhere a readiness to adopt and employ the 
I system, the Committee will be ready to consider of 
■ the grant of a Fount of Types for such press." 

Church Missionary House, London. 
Aug. 26, 1861. 

W. KNIGHT, 

Sec. C. M. S. 



XV 



CONTENTS. 



Advertisements p. iii 

Introduction to the Second Edition - 1 

First Part. Historical and Systematical Development - 21 

The scientific Object of the Standard Alphabet - 23 

The practical Object of the Standard Alphabet =26 

What has been done by Science for the Solution of the Problem 

up to the present time - 30 

What has been done by the Missionary Societies for the Solution 

of the Question - 39 

The System proposed - 46 

A. The System of Vowels - 46 

B. The System of Consonants - 59 

Secoiifl Part. Collection of Alphabets reduced to the Standard 

Alphabet - 85 

General Division of languages - 87 

LITE EARY LANGUAGES p. 91-265 

A. GENDER LANGUAGES - 9i-208 

I. Japhetic (Indogermanic) languages - 91 — 173 



Sanskrit 

Pall 

Old Frakrit 

Hindi 

Hindustdni 

Sindhi 

Gujardtl 

Marathi 

Panjabl or Sikh , 

Nipdll 

Bangall 

Urlya , 

PaHo or Afydii 

Old Baktrian (Zend) .... 
Old Persian (Ouneiform). 



91 

96 

97 

98. 

100 

103 

106 

108 

110 

111 

112 

113 

114 

117 

124 



Modern Persian p. 130 

Armenian - 132 

Kurd - 136 

Ossettan - 138. 

Lituanian - 141 

Old Slovenian - 145 

Serbian - 151 

Russian - 154 

Cheskian (Bohemian) - 157 

Polish - 160 

Sorhian - 162 

Rumanian (Walachian) - 164 

Old Icelandic - 169 

Welsh (Kimri) - 171 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



II. Semitic languages p. 173 — 193 

Hebrew p. 1 73 G^f "p (EtUopic) p. 18 8 

Syrian - 182 Amharic - 191 

Arabic - 184 

III. Hamitic languages p. 193 — 208 

Old Egyptian p. 193 Ta-mdseq (Mdsiy) p. 205 

Coptic - 200 Hausa - 207 

Beja (Bisarl) - 202 Nama (Ncmaqua) - 208 

Qalla - 204 



B. NO-GENDER LANGUAGES p. 209 

I. Asiatic languages - 209 

1. Tataric languages - 209 

p. 209 Madyaric (Hungarian) ..... 



Mordvinian. .■ 

Livonian 

Tamil (Tamulian) . . . 

Malay alam 

Tulu 

Karnataka (Kanarese) 
Telugu (Telinga) ..... 



Manju 

Sarra-Mongolian - 212 

Buryetic - 213 

Yakutic - 214 

Turkish - 215 

Turkmenian - 218 

Kazak (Kirghiz) -218 

Samoyedic dialects -219 

2. Monosyllabic languages p. 232 

{Ktoan-hwa (Mandarinic) ... p. 232 Thai (Siamese} 

Hok-lo -. - 235 Kamboja 

Hak-ka - 235 Mranma (Burmese) 

3. Isolated languages p. 244 

Yukagiric p. 244 Georgian 

Caucau (Chukchic) - 244 Tus 

Japanese - 245 Albanian 

Tibetan - 249 



— 300 

— 255 

— 231 
p. 220 

- 221 

- 223 

- 224 

- 228 

- 229 

- 230 

- 231 

— 243 
p. 237 

- 241 

- 242 

- 255 
p. 251 

- 253 

- 254 



II. Polynesian or Malayan (Oceanic) languages .. p. 255— 265 



Malayan p. 255 

Batak and Mandailiii 

Javanese 

Dayak 

Makassar 



Eastern Polynesian languages 



2bl 
259 
260 
261 
263 
264 



New Zealand 
Raro-Tohga . . 

Gambler 

Tahiti 

Marquesas , . . 
Sandwich . . . . 



p. 264 

- 264 

- 265 

- 265 

- 265 

- 265 



b 



^X 



CONTENTS. 



XVII 



ILLITERATE LANGUAGES P- 266-300 

III. Australian or Papuan languages p. 266 — 268 

South Australian (Adelaide) . p. 266 Mare (Loyalty Islands) p. 267 

Annatom (New Hebrides; - 266 Viti {Fiji Islands) - 267 

IV. African laiiguages p. 268 — 288 



Sudheli (Ki-Suaheli) p. 268 

Makua (Mosambigue) - 263 

T.nidna (Se-tmaiia) - 270 

Kafir - 271 

Zulu - 271 

iiOsa (Ma-iiOsa) - 273 

Herero (0-Tyi-Herero) - 273 

Fernando Po - 275 

Ibo - 275 

Yoruba - 276 

Ewe - 279 



Akra or Gd p. 280 

Tyi (Otyi) or Akwapim .... - 281 

Timne - 282 

Vei - 283 

Susu - 284 

Mandihga - 285 

Wolof - 285 

Fula - 286 

Kdnuri (Bornu) - 287 

Kongara (Dar Fur) - 288 

Nuba - 288 



V. American languages pag. 289 — 300 



Indian langu. of North America p. 289 



Greenlandic 
Massatsusei 
Irak wo is . . . 
Muskoki . . . 
Tsahto 



289 
291 
292 
292 
293 



Tsalagi (Chiroki) 

Dakota 

Otomi 

Ketsua 

Kiriri 



p. 293 

- 297 

- 298 

- 298 

- 299 



General Table of languages p. 301 — 308 

Postscript - 309 — 315 




Introduction 

to 

the Second Edition, 



Five years have elapsed since the first edition of the Standard 
Alphabet was published. It has during that period enjoyed 
a wide circulation principally owing to the recommendation 
of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, and the 
progress it has made leaves no doubt on our mind that it will / 
ere long be universally adopted in all Missionary literature, jf 

An intimate relation exists between linguistic science and 
Missionary labours. The latter, especially in new and hitherto 
unwritten languages, supply the former — chiefly by means of 
Translations, Vocabularies, Grammars, and Specimens — with 
rich, and in most cases the only, materials for further investi- 
gation and comparison. When we consider this close relation, 
we are led to expect that by degrees science also will employ 
our system more and more extensively, the fundamental prin- 
ciples of which have hitherto remained uncontraverted. 

This Alphabet has as yet been more frequently applied to 
African languages than to any others. The reason for this 
is obvious. No attempts, or but very insignificant ones, have 
been made to reduce them to writing: at all evenfs none such 
as could have stood in the way of the general introduction 

A 



of an Alphabet otherwise acknowledged to be in every respect 
suitable. ^ 



^ The following works on African languages, in which the Standard Al- 
phabet has been adopted, have come to the knowledge of the author: 

1854. 
S. W. Kolle (Church Miss. See): 

a) African Native Literature f or Proverbs ^ Tales ^ Fables, and Historical 

Fragments in the Kdnuri or Bornu Language, and a Kdnuri- 
English Vocabulary. London, Church Miss. House. 

b) Grammar of the Bornu or Kdnuri Language. London. Church 

Miss. House. 

1856. 

J. B. Schlegel (North German Miss. Soc. at Bremen): 

Agbale he me devio osro hlels. Aon g I a- Primer , printed for the Ger- 
man and Foreign School-booh-Society at Calw. Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 

1857. 
J. F. Schon (Ch. Miss. Soc): 

a) Fdrawd letdfin mdgdna Hausa ko Mdhoyi mdgdnan gaskia etc. 

[Hausa Primer], Berlin. Print. Unger. 

b) The Gospel according to St. Matthew, translated into H aus a. Printed 

for the British and Foreign Bible Society. London. Watts. 
J. Erhardt (Ch. Miss. Soc): 

Vocabulary of the Enguduh Iloigob, as spoken by the M as ai- tribes 
in East-Africa. Ludwigsburg (Wurtemberg). F. Riehm. 
H. Tindall (Wesl. Miss.): 

A Grammar of the Namaq^ia- Hottentot Language. Cape-town. (Sold 
by Trubner.) 
J. C. Wallmann (Inspector of the Berlin Miss. Soc): 

Die Formenlehre der Namaquasprache, ein*Beitrag zur Siidafrikani- 
schen Linguistik. Berlin. (Published by W. Hertz.) 
Hugo Hahn (Rhenish Miss. Soc. at Barmen): 

Grundziige einer Grammatik des Herero im westlichen Africa., nebst 
einem Worterbuche. Berlin. (Published by W. Hertz.) 
J. B. Schlegel (North German Miss. Soc. at Bremen): 

Schlussel zur Ewe-Sprache mit Wortersammlung , nebst einer Samm- 
lung von Sprichwortern und einigen Fabeln der Eingebornen. 
Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 
J. Zimmerniann (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) Genesi alo Mose klehkleh wolo le; ye Gd wiemo le mli. The first 
book of Moses in the Akra (Gd) Language. (London. Watts.) 



Far more difficult is the application of a new Orthography, 
even of the most perfect kind, to Asiatic languages, especially 



b) Daniel ghalo le , ye Gd wiemo le ml'%. The hook of Daniel in the 

Akra (Gd) Language. London. Watts. 

c) Johane he Juda wodsi le, etc. The Epistles of John and Jiide, and 

the Revelation of St. John the Divine, in the Akra (Gd) Lan- 
guage. (London. Watts.) 2d Ed. 1861. BaseL 

d) Spruchbuch des Calwer Verlagsvereins. Stuttgart. 
G. Chris taller (Basel Miss. Soc.) : 

Kirchengebet und KatechismUs (Anhang zu Earth's Biblischer Geschichte). 
Stuttgart. 

1858. 

J. F. Schon (Ch. Miss. Soc): 

Labari ndgari hdmmdda anrubutasi dagd Luhas. The Gospel according 
to St. Luke, translated into Hausa. Printed for the British and 
Foreign Bible Society. London. Watts. 
A. Steinhauser (Basel Miss. Soc): 

Kanemo-Wolo. Primer of the Gd Language. Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 
A. Steinhauser & J. Zimmermann: 

Gesangbuch, 168 Lieder in Akra. Stuttgart. 
J. Zimmermann (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra or Gd Language, and some Speci- 

mens of it from the mouth of the natives. Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 

b) Bofoi le Asddsi etc The Acts of the Apostles translated into the Akra 

Language. (London. Watts.) 2d Ed. 1861. Basel. 
J. B. Schlegel (North German Miss. Soc at Bremen): 

a) Jesu Kristo etc History of Jesus , from the raising of Lauirus from 

the death to the day of Pentecost, with the Epistles and the Reve- 
lation of St. John the Divine, in the We Language. Stuttgart. 
Steinkopf. 

b) Mavou-agbaba me nya veve tewe blaato vo eve. Dr. Earth's two 

times fifty two Bible Stories etc, translated into the Ethe Lan- 
guage as spoken in Aiilo, Slave Coast, W.Afr. Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 

1859. 

J. F. Schon (Ch, Miss. Soc): 

Letafln Musa JSabiu. The second book of Moses called Exodus, trans- 
lated into Hansa. London. Printed for the British and Foreign 
Bible Society. 
J. C. Taylor (Native Clergyman, Ch. Miss. Soc): 

Isuama-J bo fiatekism, translated from Dr. Watts' s first Catechism. 
(London). Watts. 

A2 



to those which have possessed a settled native system of writ- 
ing, and which, through either their literary or their practical 



C. L. Reichardt (Ch. Miss. Soc): 

a) Primer in the Fulah Language. Berlin. Unger. 

b) Three original Fulah pieces in Arabic letters ^ in Latin transcription ^ 

and in English translation. Berlin. Unger. 

Lewis Grout (American Board): 

The Isizulu. A Grammar of the Zulu Language, accomp. tcith a his- 
torical introduction, also with an appendix. Natal. J C. Buchanan. 
Published by May & Davis, Pietermaritzburg; sold by Triibner. 
London. 

J. Zimmermann (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) Jesaya gbalo le ye Gd wiemo le mli. The book of the Prophet Isaiahy 

in the Ahr a Language. Printed for the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. Basel. C. Schultze. 

b) Bofo krohkroh Paulo le icolo ni enma eyamadse Romafoi le; ye Ga 

wiemo le mli. The Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 
in the Akra (Gd) Language. (London. Watts.) 

c) /. Kor. — //. Petri. 

d) 8 Wandtabellen. 

G. Christ aller (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) tyi kehkah hhoma. Otji Primer^ together with a Collection of 

Scripture Passages. Basel. C. Schultze. 

b) Yen awurade ne agyehkwd Yesu Kristo ho asempa no, wo Otyi kasa 

mu. The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the 
Otji Language, as spoken in Akuapem, Gold Coast, W. Afr. 
(London). Watts. 

c) Asomafo no nneyge ho asem a Luka kyerew mae, wo Otyi kasa mu. 

The Acts of the Apostles by St. Luke, in the Otji Language. 
Printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Basel. C. 
Schultze. 

d) Kristo fo asafo a wowo Akuapem Tyi-dyom-hhoma. Hymnbook for 

the Christian Church in the Akuapem country in the Otji Lan- 
guage. Stuttgart. Steinkopf. 
L. Grout (American Board): 

Imisebenzi Yabatunywa : i kumselwe ngabafandisi ba semerika ngohwa 
'mazulu. (Acts of the Apostles translated by the Teachers of 
America among the Zulus.) Emsunduzi. J. Buchanan. 
H. Hahn and F. Rath (Rhen. Miss. Soc): 

Omahungi oa embo ra Yehova omukuru mu tyiherero. (Tales of 
the word of Jehova in the Herero Language.) Capetown. S.Solomon. 



importance, have long since afforded to Europeans occasion to 
express by Roman Letters the sounds which they contain. ^ 



1860. 1861. 

J. F. Schon (Ch. Miss. Soc): 

Oku Ibo. Grammatical Elements of the Ibo Language. London. 
Watts. (1861.) 
J. Chr. Taylor (Native Clergyman, Ch. Miss. Soc): 

a) Ahuhwo ehpere Isuama- 1 bo. A Selection from the Book of Common 

Frayer, translated into Ibo. London. Watts. 

b) Isuama- 1 bo Primer , by the Rev. Sam. Crowther , revised and en- 

larged by the Rev. J. Chr. Taylor. London. Watts. 

c) Isuama- 1 bo Sermon, preached at Trinity Church, Kissy road, Free- 

town, Febr. 17, 1859. London. Watts. 
Sam. Crowther (Native Clergyman, Ch. Miss. Soc); 

Nupe Primer. London. Watts. 
G. Chris taller (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) Nhyontobea ama Tyi-dyom-hhoma ne Ga-lala-wolo no. Tune Book 

to the Otji and Akra Hymn-books. Compiled by G. Auer. 
Basel. C. Schultze. 

b) Sechs Wandtabellen. Basel. 

J. Zimmermann (Basel Miss. Soc): 

a) Exodus, in the Akra Language. 

b) Sddsi kpakpai edse le. The four Gospels in the Akra Language. 
K. Riidi (Basel Miss. Soc): 

Biblia nili sddsi ha gbekebii fufobii. Bible Stories for little children in 
the Akra (Gd) Language. Basel. C. Schultze. 
R. Lepsius: 

Ingil Yesu el Messlhmlin Markosin fdyism nagittd. The Gospel accord- 
ing to St. Mark, translated into the Nubian Language. Berlin. 
1860. (W. Hertz.) 
These and some other works, which we shall mention hereafter, have ap- 
peared under the auspices of no less than nine Missionary Societies or kindred 
Institutions of England, Germany, and America; and several of them have 
been printed and published at the cost of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. 

^ With respect to the Asiatic languages the sanction of our system by the 
distinguished linguists of the Imper. Academy of Sciences at St. 
Petersburg, the natural centre for Asiatic Philology, is of decisive im- 
portance. We refer to the notice given in the Bullet, de la Classe Ilistorico- 
philologique de I'Acad. Imp. des sciences de St. Petersbourg, tome XIV. 
1857. p. 238, Seance du 5. (17.) dec 1856: M. Dorn en presentant le glos- 
$aire Kourde de Mr. Lerch (Dialectes Kourmandji et Zaza) pret a etre m,i$ 



6 

Among these again the most difficult as well as the most im- 
portant are the languages of India. Experience has convinced 

sous presse, communique que lui et MM. Bothlingk, Kunih et Schief- 
ner SB sont concertes avec M. Lerch quant au choix de V alphabet le plus 
propre pour la publication des specimens linguistiques Kourdes. On s'est 
decide en faveur de l' Alphabet panlinguistique, propose par Mr. 
Lepsius , auquel ant concourru les linguistes de Berlin et de Londres. In 
consequence of this decision Mr. Peter Lerch has employed the Standard 
Alphabet in his work: '^ Forschungen iiber die Kurden und die Iranischen 
Nordchaldder". First part: Kurdische Texte mil Deulscher Uebersetzung. 
St. Petersburg. 1857. Second part: Kurdische Glossare, mit einer literar- 
histor. Einleitung. 1858. The alphabet has since been likewise adopted by 
A. Schiefner, Ueber die Sprache der Jukagiren (Bull, de I'Acad. de 
St. Petersb. tome XVI. 1859. p. 242 ff.); by J. Wiedemann, Ueber die 
Livische Sprache und ihr Verhdltniss zu der Esthnischen {BvlW. t. XVI. 
1859. p. 193ff.); by Ahlquist, Eine kurze Nackricht iiber das Wogu- 
lische (Bull. Hist, philol. torn. XVI, 1.2. 1859. p. 25ff.); by the same, 
Ueber das Mordvinische Verbum. Helsingforth. 1859; by Ilminsky, 
Ueber die Sprache der Turkmenen (Bull. tom. I. 1860. p. 563-571); by 
Uadloff, Ueber das Tschuhtische und Koreatische. 1860. 

With reference to the L anguag es of Eas tern Asia we haye principally 
to mention the application of the Alphabet to the Chinese language by the 
Rev. R. Lechler (Basel Miss.), in his translation of the Gospel according 
to St. Matthew into the dialect of the Hakka Chinese ( Evangelium des 
Mallhaeus im Volhsdialekte der Hakka-Chinesen) Berlin. 1860. Unger. 
Prof. J. Hoffmann (Univ. of Leyden) has applied it to the Japanese lan- 
guage in his Shopping-Dialogues in Dutch, English and Japanese. London 
and The Hague. 1861. and the present writer to the Tibetan and the 
Chinese in two dissertations on the sounds of some of the languages of 
Eastern Asia, in the transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1860. 

It may here be added, that the author also introduced the new alphabet 
for the first time to a great extent for the transcription oi Arabic names, in 
eight geographical maps of the North-eastern part of Africa and the adjacent 
countries of Asia, which form the first plates of the "Monuments from 
Egypt and Ethiopia after the Drawings of the Prussian Expedition to those 
Countries", published by him, Berlin; 1849-1859. 

Dr. Trumpp (Ch. Miss. Soc.) was the first who employed the Standard 
Alphabet for one of the Indian Languages in his work: A Sindhi Read- 
ingbooh in the Sanskrit and Arabic character. London. 1858 (publ. 1860). 
Careful observers will notice a slight deviation from our alphabet, as it at 
present appears, in the adoption of c and j instead of c and /. The reason 
is that his "Reading book" had already passed through the press before the 
change, to the adoption of" which he fully consents, was finally adjusted. 



US that neither the internal consistency nor the physiological 
basis of our system of transcription has in the case of some 
of the sounds of these languages been sufficient to secure 
a ready acceptance for the symbols which we had proposed , 
for their expression. No Alphabet can however force itself j 
into universal ad option. It must make friends. These it will / 
find partly by a clear organization, founded upon the actual 
nature of the subject under discussion — the laws of such or- 
ganization being calculated to avoid the chaos of caprice which 
has hitherto prevailed — and partly by carefully considering the 
views and suggestions of all those concerned , whose approval 
we are anxious to purchase, when the concession would not 
overthrow the system itself. ^ The ancient Sanskrit is the basis 
of the modern Arian languages of India; its written character, / 

The greatest advantage however will result from a universal alphabet for 
such general linguistic works which have to deal with a great number of 
diiferent languages simultaneously. In this respect we have the satisfaction 
to refer to the precedent of one of the most eminent linguists, viz. H. C. 
von der Gabelentz (not to confound with the Baron H. von Gablenz, 
the author of the fantastical Gavlensographic orthography), who in his re- 
searches on the Passive (Ueber das Passwim, Leipzig, 1860, and in the 
Transactions of the E. Saxon Society of Sciences, Vol. YIII.) has adopted 
the Standard Alphabet, and employs it for the languages he treats. Likewise 
does Dr. Steinthal (Univ. of Berlin), who uses the Alphabet in his work on 
the characteristic features of the principal types of all languages (Charah- 
teristik der Jump tsdchlichs ten Typen des Sprachhaues. Berlin. 1860) , and 
produces at the close (p. 332 sqq.) the whole Standard Alphabet in extenso, 
under the name of the General Linguistic Alphabet, the name which we used 
in our first German Edition of the Standard Alphabet. (Hertz. 1855.) « The 
same and Dr. M. Lazarus (Prof, on the Univ. of Bern) employ it throughout 
their valuable Journal for psychology of nations and linguistic science {Zeit- 
schrift fiir V biker psychologie und Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin. F. Dummler.). 

^ In the pamphlet of Mr. J. T. Thomson, an unpointed Phonetic Alphabet 
based upon Lepsius's Standard Alphabet, lS59, many true views are expressed, 
but even if the theory were actually faultless, he shows such disregard as 
to the prospect of the practical adoption of many of his proposals, that 
we can only regret the industry employed. The same may be applied to 
the pamphlet of Prof. H. A. Barb, Die Transcription des Arabischen Alpha- 
bets. Wien. 1860. (See below the remarks to the Arabic Alphabet.) 



8 

the Devanagari, is with some modifications extended to all 
those languages. While however the ancient Indian language 
was perfectly expressed by the Devanagari characters, the 
modern dialects have more or less departed from its pronun- 
ciation 5 but without transferring these changes into their writ- 
ten character. Of one fact indeed there is no doubt, and it 
is one that is recognized by all scientific judges of the Sanskrit; 
the ancient Sanskrit itself, as would naturally be anticipated, 
is not in various points pronounced by the Brahmans of the 
present day, as it was by those ancient Hindus to whom it 
was still a living language. Thus especially the palatals % ^, 
which were originally pronounced as simple sounds R, g (to 
our ears very much like the Gutturals k, g), are now read 
without exception as compound sounds td, clz, into which they 
have passed in course of time, a process which has taken place 
in many other languages besides these. In the same manner, the 
sounds "5; and %" are described by ancient Grammarians as the 
diphthongs c'li, cm, and are treated as such in speaking and 
writing; at present however they are pronounced as simple 
vowels e and o. The letters r and s, originally cerebrals , have 
lost their cerebral pronunciation and become dentals, so that 
now both "^ and "IT are read d without any distinction. The 
vowel sign ^ (r) written above the letters, which once formed 
a diphthong with the preceding vowel , seems to be now heard 
only as a consonant. The present pronunciation however 
of the Sanskrit forms the foundation of every attempt hitherto 
made to transcribe into Koman characters the actual languages 
of India. In the first edition of the Standard Alphabet only the 
ancient pronunciation of the Sanskrit was taken into con- 
sideration, which, if we treat the language in a strictly scientific 
manner, must indeed still be regarded as the Standard; but it 
cannot be denied that the present pronunciation of the Brah- 
mans must also be taken into consideration. And this the more, 
because the same pronunciation very generally reappears in 



9 

those cognate living languages which employ the Devanagari 
character. For this reason, although we still recommend the 
adoption for strictly scientific use of the transcription of the 
ancient pronunciation, it has appeared convenient to exhibit 
by its side a transcription of the modern pronunciation also, 
and at the same time to adopt the latter for all living lan- 
guages derived from the Sanskrit. This distinction at the same 
time facilitates the solution of a question which has been fre- 
quently mooted within the last few years, and which is of 
great importance as regards the universal adoption of the 
Standard Alphabet. In the first edition we have already in- 
timated in several places (pp. 41, note 2; 44; 50), that the 
physiological principle of representing every simple sound by 
a single sign, and consequently every compound sound by 
several signs, may on Etymological grounds admit of certain 
appropriate exceptions. This is for instance the case, when 
an originally simple sound, although it may have been changed 
by assibilation into a double one, continues notwithstanding 
to be regarded in writing as a simple sound, and is so felt 
in the living language. With this view, for the double sounds 
ty, dy^ ts, dzj ts, dz^ which have resulted from simple palatals, 
we proposed (p. 42) the single signs t' , d', t^ d, t, d. This actually 
happens in the case of the present pronunciation of the ancient 
Indian Palatals. The letters ^, ^ have not only preserved 
their simple form in all Indian Alphabets, although they have 
passed into the double sounds ts and dz, but the living lan- 
guage itself still treats these double sounds in more than one 
respect as simple ones. Yet notwithstanding all this there 
might still be a doubt whether we ought for these reasons to 
propose a single sign for the double sounds ts and dz. Con- 
siderable experience during the last five years has however 
convinced us that there would be great practical difficulties, 
both in India and Europe, in the way of bringing into universal 
adoption in Indian languages the written forms ^6" and dz^ 



1/ 



10 

correct as these might be in themselves. Uniformity is 
always the main object of the Standard Alphabet, an3 this 
object in the case before us appears to be only attainable by 
the substitution of the simple bases c and y, to which the 
general suflPrage seems to incline. We prefer therefore to make 
use of these two letters wherever the above mentioned reasons 
suggest an exception from the general rule. This will be 
chiefly the case in the Indian and in the Semitic languages, 
whilst for African or hitherto unwritten languages, as a 
general rule, we shall solve the difficulty by adhering to tn 
and dL 

We have indeed formerly shown the special disadvantage 
attached to the use of the letters c and y, since they have 
in diflferent European orthographies very different pronuncia- 
tions; viz. : 

English German French Italian Spanish 
c — h ox 8 k or ts k or s k or ts k ov 

j = dz y ^ y X 

In order therefore to indicate the linguistic use of c and j 
for t^ and dz, it is indispensable to add to them a diacritical 
sign, to distinguish them from the European letters c and y, 
and to indicate the especial linguistic power, which we wish 
them to possess. It will be seen on a subsequent page that 
we have already adopted the diacritical sign "^ to distinguish 
the sounds s and z from s and z, and it therefore appears 
most natural that we should employ the same diacritical sign 
over the new bases, c and j, to indicate the second part 
of the pronounced double sounds, viz. ts and dz. We con- 
sequently vrrite c and f. 

It has also been before observed that the assibilation of 
originally simple palatal sounds has not unfrequently adopted 
other forms besides ts and dz, and that the following is a com- 
plete series of transitions of which some languages possess 
several together. 



11 

^S 9 

%: yy r^'? 9) 

ty, dy (t\ d') 
ts, dz (c, f) 
ts, dz (t, d) 

Of these forms the first amplifications, ky , gy, happen to 
stand closely connected with their originals, the simple palatals, 
which can scarcely be pronounced without a distinctly audible 
y. Where then a simple basis is required, they need no special 
distinction, but may be denoted, hke the simple palatals, by 
U and g. For the second and fourth amplifications the marks 
t, d' and t, d have already been proposed in the first edition. 
For the third however , which we thought we had before most 
suitably expressed by ts and dz, we now employ c and / for 
the reason which we have given. We write therefore the 
Turkish palatals U, g = ky, gy. In the Sindhi alphabet there 
appears by the side of c, /, also a d' {= dy)^ and in the 
Pashto by the side of c and / also t and d (= ts, dz) , which 
have also descended from palatal sounds. 

Another deviation from the first edition consists of the changing 
the aspirates {t\ d'^ (fee.) into their corresponding mutes with an h 
following {th, dh^ (fee). That this change is not in contradiction to 
the fundamental laws of the Standard Alphabet is plain from the 
explanation of the aspirates we have already given (P^ Ed, 
p. 44). Indeed, the aspiration is not absolutely one with 
the consonant, but partly follows it, and can therefore be ex- 
pressed separately. Following the practice of Bopp and others, 
we previously marked the aspirates in the Sanskrit by an 
added Spiritus asper; we did so, because in the Devanagari 
the aspirates are represented by single signs. But it has also 
been mentioned that in the Arabic transcription of the Hin- 
dustani the Indian aspirates are already written separately. 
Still more decisive however is the practical ground that the 
notation of the aspirates as simple sounds, has not been 



12 

favourably received, on account of the inconvenience attached 
to it in writing and printing. We believe therefore that we 
shall, in this point also, meet the views of the majority of 
those interested, if we free the Standard Alphabet of the in- 
convenient hooks of the aspirates, and substitute in their places 
the full h; except only in the more accurate transcript of the 
ancient pronunciation of the Devanagari. 

Lastly, in the first edition of the Standard Alphabet, the 
choice was left open between j, ^\ and the new bases /, d. 
We have found with great satisfaction, that the most intel- 
ligent voices have been raised in favour of the latter signs. 
We therefore do not hesitate to drop the reluctantly admitted 
signs jf ^', and to substitute for them /, (5. Of minor im- 
portance is the adoption in the present edition of the angular 
sign 6^, z instead of the circular s, z^ to denote the English 
sound sh and the French j. Whoever may prefer the latter 
form, may use it without hesitation. In favour of the former 
we find not only its use in several Slavonic languages, but 
also its greater clearness in writing and print, whilst the 
round form may easily be confounded with the Spiritvs asper 
or lenis. 

We have already in the first edition protested against the 
use of Italics to denote the deviating classes of sounds according 
to which we should, for instance, have to write: "da^tia" 
instead of in conformity with our system: danda. It gives us 
much satisfaction to perceive that Professor Max M tiller 
has in his last publication, The History of Sanskrit Literature, 
relinquished this mode of transcription and substituted dots 
to express the Indian cerebrals. We must also repeat our de- 
cided protest against the use of ch and s/i, according to the 
English pronunciation, instead of our c and s. We rejoice 
at the accession to our view of Dr. Caldwell, at least 
as ftir as the former sound is concerned, since in his last 



13 

work^ he has given up the use of ch^ which he had previously 
adopted. Our Alphabet now agrees in most points with his, as 
far as regards the pronunciation of the present Indian languages. 
Still we consider the diacritical sign "" over c and j {c, j) to be 
unavoidably necessary in order to distinguish them everywhere 
from c and / as used in European languages. As ch instead 
of c, so also sh instead of s, violates not only the fundamental 
laws of all correct transcription, but also the requirements of 
practical applicability. The combination sJi can, according to 
the analogy of kh, ph etc., only indicate an aspirated s, as 
it actually occurs in the Chinese and other languages, and 
may also occur in any other, by the concurrence of a final s 
with h following, as in English misha'p^ in German GrasJialm. 
Neither can we approve of the stroke a, ^', 6 in the Alphabet 
of Dr. Caldwell to denote long vowels, because this stroke 
is, as a general practice, never used in European languages 
to indicate the prosodic length of a vowel, but the accent of 
the word, as in the Greek. 

These and some other imperfections in the proposals of Sir 
Charles Trevelyan adopted by Professor Monier Will- 
iam s^ and the Rev. G. U. Pope% should be avoided before 



^ On the substitution of the Roman for the Indian Characters (com- 
municated to the Madras Literary Society by Sir Charles Trevelyan), 
1859. 

* A new collection of various essays referring to this subject has just 
been made by Prof. MonierWilliams, entitled: Original papers illustrating 
the history of the application of the Roman Alphabet to the languages of 
India. London 1859. 

* One Alphabet for all India. Madras 1859, This pamphlet, like that 
of Dr. Caldwell, was elicited by Sir Charles Trevelyan, when at 
Madras. While both essays contain strong arguments in favour of a Roman 
Alphabet for India, it would be incorrect to regard the authors , as advocat- 
ing, in its integrity, the modification of^Sir W. Jones's system, adopted 
by Sir Charles, and promoted by Professor Williams. Amongst other 
divergences, for example, Mr, Pope employs the circumflex to mark the 
ong vowels (a, e, <£c.), and the Spanish n. We have noticed one of the 



14 

we can either wish or expect that his long continued and 
laudable exertions for the introduction of the Roman Alphabet 
will meet with complete success. Just as little can the report 
of the Sub-Committee of the Madras Literary Society, and 
auxiliary of the R. Asiatic Society , on writing Indian words 
in Roman Characters (in the Madras Journal of Literature 
and Science, Vol. 3, New Series, Madras 1859), exert any de- 
cisive influence on the solution of the main question; since 
Messrs. Elliott, Bayley and Norman, the gentlemen com- 
posing the Committee, are not even agreed among themselves, 
but have conveyed in three appendices their own individual 
proposals, which deviate in some, and partly not unimportant, 
points from the main report composed by Mr. Elliott. Messrs. 
Elliott and Bayley have even gone so far as to return- 
in opposition however to Mr. Norman's protest — to the ex- 
ploded method of denoting aspirates by k'h, g^h, cJi'h, thus 
separating distinctly by means of a comma the mute from its 
aspirate, although the same is found to be so intimately con- 
nected that in the Devanagari it is expressed by but one letter. 
These writers can, in this, as in some other points, plead 
the example of Sir William Jones, whose great services 
we have always acknowledged (see below), especially with 
reference to the vowel-system. It has however been already 
pointed out, that his transcription of the consonants was 
very defective, principally because the physiological laws of 
the system of sounds were not then fully recognized. The 
Sub-Committee appear unfortunately to have been unacquainted 

most important of Dr. Caldwell's variations above— the abandonment of 
ch to express the first consonant of the palatal row. He has also mis- 
givings as to the acute accent for denoting the long vowels , and even says, 
"For cursive writing, I suspect, it will be found that the simple horizontal 
line— the ordinary prosodial line of length— is the easiest" (p. 27). Even 
Mr. Williams hesitates not only as to ch but as to sh, and appears to 
propose c with a diacritical mark, while he thinks that "a similar modifi- 
cation of sh might perhaps be introduced with advantage." (See Williams's 
Bdg-o-baliar^ pp.xxvii-xxix.) We welcome such approximations to our system. 



15 

with the proposals of the Standard Alphabet, which is especi- 
ally based upon a critical choice, according to internal laws, 
amongst the different systems of notation hitherto used , and has 
the object not only to harmonize the wants and customs of In- 
dian writers with European science, but also with the wants 
of Missionaries beyond India, embracing, as they do, all the 
rest of the world. They would otherwise have perhaps at- 
tempted to combine their Anglo-Indian standing -point with 
that of the Standard Alphabet. 

Whilst referring to this subject we venture to call attention 
to the introduction to the Zulu Grammar by the Kev. Lewis 
Grout, in which the Standard Alphabet is thoroughly re- 
viewed, both with regard to its intrinsic value, and its gene- 
ral applicability. Mr. Grout, Missionary of the American 
Board of Missions, has for some time (see p. 41) taken the 
lead in the diversified and fundamental discussions of the 
question of the Alphabet in American Missions, and especially 
at Natal. He therefore has a strong claim to be heard, and 
his example- in applying the Standard Alphabet to his learned 
work on the Zulu language cannot fail to cause those who 
take a cordial interest in the question, to follow him with 
all the more confidence. 

A few more observations on different points in relation to 
transcription into Roman Characters may now follow. We 
form the Api^ellatives of the letters in various ways. In naming 
the explosive Consonants we put the Vowel after, as: ka, te, 
de^ pe, qu; in naming the fricatives and liquids we put the 
Vowel before, as: es, ef\ el^ em^ ei\ Others again we call, as did 
the Greeks, by special names: — as in the English: aitch^ double- 
you, %i:y, zed; the German jod^ vaic, zet, ypsilon; the French 
ach, ygrec. Lastly, we possess no common designation for 
sounds like 6^, z, j and others, or for such as do not exist 
in European languages; yet it is necessary to have such 
both in teaching, and in other cases. Under these circum- 
stances it seems most advisable to follow the example of the 



16 

Sanskrit and other syllabic languages, adopting a uniform 
nomenclature throughout, and pronouncing every letter with- 
out difference, with an a following, thus: ka^ pa^ la^ ma^ 
j[a^ sa^ za^ va, ya^ and so on. 

It is also necessary to come to a definite understanding, with 
regard to the Order of letters in Lexicons and similar works. 
It seems that a scientific arrangement can only be obtained, 
by keeping the Vowels and Consonants respectively by them- 
selves, and by arranging the latter according to the different 
classes of the organs, i. e. gutturals, palatals, (fee, or as as- 
pirates, explosives (fortes, lenes)^ nasals, &c. In the first 
Edition (p. 47) we have (where an organic arrangement 
was necessary) given the preference to the classes of exspiration, 
because in them especially the bases of similar sounds are most 
closely kept together. For European use we have, however, 
recommended the European order of letters, and now con- 
sider it well to recommend the same to a still greater extent. 
It may in fact be introduced into all lexical arrangements, 
as a scientific order is only needed when one has to speak 
in a grammar or elsewhere of a scientific classification of 
sounds. Lexicons in foreign characters will necessarily follow 
the foreign arrangement; but, applied to Roman characters, 
either principle of arrangement deduced from sound would 
uselessly separate all the homogeneous roots and hard and 
soft letters, which belong to one another. Classified according 
to the organs, 7^, w, ^, w, and again 5, s^ s^ s would be 
widely separated from each other; classified according to ex- 
spiration, k would be separated from ^, t from d^ i' from ;r, 
^ from ^, and so on. Within these classes of exspiration, 
it would also be necessary to place the bases with distin- 
guishing marks before the simple bases, e. g. t and t before 
t^ n and n before w, which seems not to be natural, and as 
to other letters such as c^ /, s', ;r, i9, J, it would be altogether 
doubtful what place should be assigned to them. Besides this, 
any arrangement of the letters according to the organs 



17 

would present great difdculty to Europeans, who are ac- 
customed only to the Latin mode, and this difficulty would 
be vastly increased , when we come to the order of the letters 
not only at the commencement, but in the body of each word. 
For foreigners however, who will have under any circum- 
stances to relinquish their accustomed succession of letters, it 
is of little importance what new arrangement they may adopt, 
and a scientific one is of no advantage, where convenience 
and practical utiHty only are aimed at. The case would as- 
sume a different aspect, if the Alphabetical arrangements of 
European languages were as diversified as their orthographies. 
In this case a new and necessarily organical arrangement 
would be unavoidable. But inasmuch as all European nations 
use one and the same order of letters as handed down to them 
by the Romans^ who received it from the Greeks, who again 
received it thousands of years ago from the Phoenicians, they 
possess also the right of communicating the historical arrange- 
ment, as well as the characters themselves, to foreign nations. 
To enter into detail. We shall give the precedence to let- 
ters without diacritical marks; the rest, when there are several 
of them , will be arranged according to the organs of speech. 
As far as the signs ' and ? are concerned, the simple curve 
' is not likely to be of much lexicographical use. Should it 
however be called for, it also would be treated as the distin- 
guishing mark of a vowel, and would either be dealt with 
as not existing at all, or follow the simple vowel as 'a 
after a, 'e after e, and so on. For the Semitic sound ^ 
two curves / have been chosen in order that for European 
languages, we might not be obliged to take notice of this 
sound at all , more especially at the beginning of words. If 
we were to take any letter with a diacritical mark, for in- 
stance g', some inconveniences would ensue. One would con- 
sent to write 'Abdallah, yAli, but never Qabdallah, Qali; 
we shall therefore treat / like * as not existing, and should 

B 



■^- 



18 

take no notice of it in lexical arrangements , except where two 
words have no other mutual distinction, in w^hich case we 
should place the word containing the ' immediately after the 
one that does not contain it, or which contains only one 
curve \ Lastly, the four Greek marks may most easily be as- 
sociated with those Roman ones, whose fricatives they are, con- 
sequently d will come after c?, / after g, j after k, d- after t. In 
conformity with this plan the Alphabet with the principal diacri- 
tical signs employed in the diflPerent languages could be arranged 
as follows: «, «, a, a, «, «, «, ^a, /a; 5, U^ h\ b; c, c, c% c; 
J, cl\ cl\ (], d\ d, d, d^ d; ^, g; e^ e^ e^ e^ e, 6, #, e, e^ e^ e, 

§•> r^f-> /'• 9-^ 9\ 9-, 9% 9^ 9\ y-i y^ /; ^h ^^-^ h h h 'h ^, h h 
i-> ''^; :h :h i? i; ^^ ^', ^', ^% k% t, k, k, k^; j, j, j; i, l, i\ 

I, ^, /, /; m, w, ???, m; n^ w, n, ??, o'l^ n^ V'-> V'-> ^? ^^? ^9 ^5 ^7 
0, 0, 0, 0, g, p, g, 0, g; p, /, p, p^; q, q^; r, r, r, r, r, 

'''^ "''-> T' f' ^: «'? ^•> «% ^'7 ^s ^; ^ ^'' ^^ ?? A h t% A ^ r? 

t^ t; 0; ^^, ?7 , li^ w, w, ?/, w, u, w, w; ?;, ^, v; w^ w, w; 

y •> y'y '^? •^^ ?5 '^j ~? '^9? -^5 °/ ''^ " "i !"> ' 'y ~ J "~5 ~ 5 "~5 "/9 ~n 

T 
~\» ~L9 " • 

The exposition of the scientific and practical principles ac- 
cording to which a suitable Alphabet for universal adoption 
in foreign languages might be constructed, has, with the few 
exceptions above mentioned, remained unaltered. These rules 
are founded in the nature of the subject, and therefore, though 
they may admit of certain carefully limited exceptions, they 
can undergo no change in themselves; they serve as a defence 
against arbitrary proposals which do not depend upon universal 
laws; they will explain and recommend the application which 
has been made of them already to a series of languages, and 
will serve as a guide in their application to new ones. 

But we have not concealed, from the very beginning, that it is 
not in eyery^^erson's power to apprehend with physiologica,l 
and linguistic accuracy the sounds of a foreign language, or 
even those of his own, so as to apply with some degree of 



19 

certainty the principles of our Alphabet to a new system of 
sounds containing its own peculiarities. A few only of our 
most distinguished Grammarians are possessed of a penetrating 
insight into the living organism of sounds in those very languages, 
which they have discussed. Much less can it be expected of 
Missionaries, who are often obliged without previous preparation 
to address themselves to the reduction and representation of 
a foreign language, that everything, which belongs to a cor- 
^-ect adjudication of particular sounds (frequently apprehended 
,0nly with great difficulty even by the ear), or to their connection 
with one another and with other^systems of sounds, should 
present itself spontaneously to their minds. 

We attach therefore, with reference to the practical utility 
of this book, special importance to its Second Part, which 
contains a collection of Standard Alphabets, carried out in 
conformity with the principles of our work. We have fre- 
quently observed that those, who have tried to make use of 
our Alphabet, have found the correct application less difficult 
by a comparison with a given and cognate Alphabet, than by 
the study of our preceding expositions. We believe that we 
have made the present edition still more useful by increasing 
the collection of Alphabets, as well as by a careful revision 
of those previously given. To facilitate the comprehension 
of the signs chosen for every Alphabet, we have added, 
in most cases, some short annotations, and a few connected 
lines of text. On the other hand we thought, that we might 
be permitted to pass over in silence, in this Edition, the 
Alphabets of other Grammarians, and only to add the in- 
digenous signs, as far as they were at our disposal. 

For the most essential advance, more especially in reference 
to Indian Alphabets, the present Edition is indebted to the 
learned and intelligent cooperation of the Rev. Dr. T rum pp. 
This gentleman has resided for several years in different parts of 
India, and has paid particular attention to the pronunciation 

B2 



§0 

of the most important Arian languages, with a special view 
to their practical application (see above p. 6). He returned 
in the spring of 1860 to Europe, and the author rejoiced to 
avail himself of the opportunity of his visit, which was par- 
ticularly designed to bring all scientific and practical questions, 
which in the application of our Alphabet to the Indian lan- 
guages would come into consideration, to a definite conclusion. 

Finally, we have thankfully to state, that we are greatly in^ 
debted for a general revision of this second Enghsh Edition 
to the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Rev. 
W. Knight, and another member of its Committee, whom 
we have just mentioned, Rev. J. P. Schon, the author of the 
Hausa and Ibo Grammars, who both visited Berlin for this pur- 
pose in the autumn of 1860. 

Berlin, November 1861. 

R. Lepsius. 



FIEST PAET. 



HISTOEICAL AND SYSTEMATICAL 
DEVELOPMENT. 



23 



The endeavour to establish a uniform orthography for writing 
foreign languages in European characters has both a scientific 
and a practical aim. The scientific aim is to bring these lan- 
guages with their literature more completely within our reach, 
and to increase our knowledge of the nations to which they 
belong. The practical aim is to facilitate the propagation of 
the Christian faith and the introduction of Christian civilisation 
among heathen nations, especially such as have no written 
language, by furnishing them with a suitable alphabet. 

The latter object is most intimately connected with the effi- 
ciency of all Christian missions. It is in this quarter that at- 
tention has been lately directed afresh to a want long felt in 
science, often suggested, but never yet satisfied, namely, the 
want of a standard alphabet universally current and applicable 
to all languages. In the Mission field, without doubt, the 
first decisive steps will be taken for the actual introduction of 
such a graphic system. 



m a grapni 



'^ y V The Scientific Object of this Alphabet, 

One of the grandest aims of modern science, and one which 
fit has only lately been in a position to attempt, is the attain- 
ment of an accurate knowledge of all the langu^ge,s_Qf the earth. 
The knowledge of languages is the surest guide to a more 
intimate acquaintance with the nations themselves, and this not \ 

only because language is the medium of all intellectual intercom- 
munication, but also because it is the most direct, the most co- 
pious and the most lasting expression of the whole national mind. 



I 



^ 



24 

From the relations of separate languages, or groups of lan- 
guages, to one another, we may discover the original and more 
r less intimate affinity of the nations themselves. We learn, 
for instance, by this means, that the Indians, Persians, Greeks, 
\ Romans, Slavonians, and Germans form a catenarian series whose 
parts are far more intimately connected with one another than 
Avith any link of the chain, which consists of the Babylonians, 
Hebrews, Phoenicians, Arabs, Abyssinians; and that the Egyp- 
tians , and the African tribes on their north-western and south- 
eastern boundaries, are much more intimately allied to both 
these groups, than to the rest of the African nations of which 
those who inhabit the continent to the south of the Equator form 
another such circle of nations, all closely related to each other. 

In like manner will the chaos of the nations in Asia, America, 
and Polynesia, be gradually resolved into order, by the aid 
of linguistic science, the ultimate aim of which is the investiga- 
tion and comparison of all the languages of mankind. 

In order to learn any language, we must be able to read 
and write its primary^ elements — the sounds. This we can only 
do in so far as we are able to express them in <>!iL own^ alpliar 
^^ betjcal c haractersj and sounds which do not exist in our own 
language must be described by other methods^ Every gram- 
mar of a foreign language must resolve these problems in its 
first pages. But since the orthographies of European nations 
vary considerably among themselves, grammarians of different 
nations represent the sounds of one and the same language by 
different letters. 

For example, the same sounds will be expressed 



<. 



k 



by the Germans w, 


dsch^ 


sch, ch. 


„ English 00, 


J, 


sh^ —. 


„ French ow. 


^, 


ch, — . 


„ Italians ii. 


9^ 


sc, -. 


„ Spaniards u, 


? 


— , j or a;. 


„ Dutch oe^ 


? 


— , ch. 



25 

The most difficult task, however, arises when we attempt to 
represent sounds which have no corresponding signs in our 
own alphabet, and when me must therefore introduce new 
characters or apply diacritical marks to our own letters. The 
French and German languages distinguishing only 20 simple 
consonantal sounds, and the English 22. it is evident that these 
alphabets are not sufficiently extensive to represent the sounds 
of the Asiatic languages, among which, the Arabic distinguishes 
and represents 28 consonants, the Turkish 33, the Sanskrit 34, 
the Hindustani 35, or, including the aspirates, even 47. Still 
less is the European alphabet capable of furnishing a corapreheu- // 
sive system including all the essential differences of sound, which// 
amount to more than 5 in njjiiiber^ in all these various languages; 

But since, generally speaking, each grammarian has only 
occupied himself with one language, or with a small circle of 
languages, he has been satisfied with explaining the symbols 
he has employed, and the reasons of their selection, without 
reference to fellow labourers, or to predecessors in the same 
field; especially ^if belonging to different European nations, and . 
therefore starting from different bases. 

Hence the diversity of signs for one and the same sound in 
different languages, or even in the same language, is conti- 
nually increasing; and has at length become so great, that the 
translator of Oriental works , the Tourist, the Geographer and ^j^ , 
Chartographer, the Naturalist, the Ethnographer, the Historian, ^1/ 
in short every one who has to do with the names and words i 

of foreign languages, and above all others the Linguist^ who " ^:^'^' 
studies and compares languages, find themselves entangled in 
an intoj^able confusion of orthographic systenis and signs, from 
which each individual finds it impossible to extricate himself. 

It is therefore only in a comprehensive survey of the whole 
question that a solution of the problem will be found. We 
must start with that which is common to all systems, following 
their general direction, excluding arbitrary and isolated expe- 

-- ■ a.. 



/ riments, keeping in view all the ,theoretical and practical dif- 
ficulties of the case, and directing all our endeavours to the 
construction of a complete and definite system founded on the 
nature of phonetic organism. This is the scientific problem of 
a universal alphabet. 
^^ It is scarcely necessary to state that we do not here advo- 
V^ cate any change in the orthographies of European languages. 
\ ^^ Isolated attempts to alter established orthographies cannot pro- 
\ duce any practical results nor render any aid to science. 

The Practical Object of this Alphabet. 

J j The aboriginal tribes of Africa, America, Australia, and Poly- 
' nesia are almost intirely destitute of written language. This 
fact alone ccaracterises them as barbarous and uncivilised. And 
if there be no nobler calling for the civihsed and Christian 
world than to impart to all mankind the treasures of religious 
knowledge and human culture so freely entrusted to their hands 
by Divine Providence, — and if the obligation of this calling, 
now more powerfully felt than ever, rests especially on those 
associations of high-minded Christian men, which have taken 
their name as Missionary Societies from this highest of all mis- 
^S sions; — then it is their especial duty to furnish destitute na- 
^ j tions, first of all, with that most important, most indispensable 
■■■^ means of intellectual, moral, and religious culture, a written 

language. For universal experience has long taught that it is 
not sufficient for the missionaries to learn the language of the 
natives in order to introduce Christianity permanently into any 
country. Only where the word of God is read by the people 
themselves, and where a whole people are made susceptible 
of the spirit of Christianity by the distribution of the Bible 
and of Christian school-books , can a rapid , deep and lasting 
work be hoped for. Bible Societies must go hand in band 
with Missionary Societies. 

Hence for many years the Committees of the principal Mis- 



27 

sionary Societies have regarded it as an important object to 
reduce to writing the language of all the nations to which 
their missionaries have penetrated, and to prepare in all these 
languages translations of the sacred Scriptures, as well as 
Christian tracts. This presupposes an accurate and scientific 
study of those languages, and the preparation of grammars and 
dictionaries, which, in order to be clearly understood, must be 
founded upon a comparison of the foreign with the European 
languages, and upon the latest improvements of linguistic science. 

It was a sense of the necessity of such linguistic studies 
which induced the Church Missionary Society to send the Rev. 
S. W. Kolle — a missionary especially adapted to the work — to 
Sierra Leone , mainly to study the languages of the thousands 
of manumitted slaves which are brought together from all parts 
of Africa at that point. The results of this exceedingly im- 
portant linguistic mission are a comparative vocabulary, com- 
prising more than one hundred distinct African languages, and 
carefully prepared grammars of two important languages — 
the Vai (Vei) and the Bornu. These works are now published 
by the same Missionary Society, in order to form the foun- 
dation for future translations into those languages of the Bible 
and other useful books. 

The various Bible Societies have made efforts on the largest 
scale to effect the same object. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society of London had published, down to the middle of the_^. 
past year (1854), 26 millions of Bibles, or parts of the same, in lll^C^ 
different translations. These translations embraced 150 different 
languages, of which 108 belonged to countries beyond the bounds 
of Europe, viz. 70 to Asia, 17 to Polynesia, 8 to America, and 
13 to Africa!. 



* See the last Report of the Bible Society, and more on the same subject 
in the most valuable and interesting work of Samuel Bag.sler: The Bible of 
every Land, a History of the Sacred Scriptures- in every language and dialect 
into which Iranslationn have been made; illustrated with specimen portions in 

C2 



28 

t\\ It wa s natural that the European system of writing should 
^ be used for all those languages which had no system of their 

* Aown. But here the same question arose as in linguistic science: 
^ ^^"^ \Vhich orthography ought to be used? Was it advisable to force 

^\^ upon those nations to which the Bible was to be presented as 

1 their first reading-book, the English orthography, which is c om- 
plicated, irregular, and singular even in Europe? Was it suitable 
that those nations should be compelled to learn to read and write 
for all future time after this fashion? And according to what 
principles should those sounds be expressed which are neither 
found in the English alphabet nor in any other European system? 
As, in these respects, there was no general law or authority, 
every missionary who had such a translation to prepare struck 
out a way for himself, and sought, according to his own fancy, 
or from a very confined view of the case, to solve the difficulty. 
If we examine the long catalogue of Bibles printed in Latin 
characters we shall find the most_multil^pus systems of letters 
employed, often in cognate languages, and even in one and the 
same language. Sometimes difficult and unintelligible groupings 
of consonants are employed as representations of simple sounds ; 
at other times a multitude of new and unexplained diacritical 
signs are employed ; and often a refuge has been sought in the 
complete rejection of all diacritical marks, and thus the correct 
expression of the language has been sacrificed. The great and 
increasing confusion resulting from this arbitrary mode of pro- 
ceeding must be apparent. 

When the pubhcation of the New Testament and Psalms 
in the language of the African Tsuana (Betchuana, Betjuana, 
Sechuana) was lately completed by the London Missionary 
Society, the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society ex- 
pressed to the Secretary of the Paris Society the joy which 

native characters, series of alphabets, coloured ethnographical maps, tables y 
indexes, etc. London, Sam. Bagster and Sons. 1851. 4to. In this book 
247 different languages are noticed in connexion with Bible translations. 



f) 



29 

he felt when he thought of the rich blessings which would 
thence accrue to that people, and to the labours of the French 
missionaries scattered among them. „But," replied his sym- 
pathising friend, "is it not sad, that these thousands of copies 
already published are entirely unavailable and sealed to our 
French missionaries who labour among the same people, and 
to all those who have received instruction from them , simply - ,/ 
because they make use of another orthography?" X i^^ 

^4. v, To avoid such palpable evils in future is the purpose of the] tV5 
■*^^ proposed standard alphabet. .„^^^ 

In Asia, the birthplace of alphabets, the chief nations already 
possess a written literature in their own native characters. This 
has afforded to European colonists and rulers, as well as to 
missionaries, the means of exercising an intellectual influence 
over those nations. The English Government in India therefore 
generally makes use of the alphabets most extensively employed 
in those regions, viz. the Persian and the Devanagari. letters, 
in order to govern and instruct the nations subject to their 
authority. The Bible Societies have also published more than 
40 translations of the Sacred Scriptures in those foreign cha- ^ 
racters. But, nevertheless, it has been often and forcibly urged, 
that many important advantages would arise from the substitution 
of a European for all the native alphabets. For besides the supe- 
riority which the uniform division of the syllable into vowel and 
consonant gives to the European alphabet over the unwieldy 
y Syllabic Alphabets of Asia, and still more over the Chinese 
( Word -Alphabet, with its many thousands of symbols, every 
newalphabet constitutes a natural and almost impassable barrier' 
between foreign and European civilisation by materially in- 
creasing the difficulty of acquiring such languages, and of be- 
coming acquainted with their literature. 

Hence the introduction of the European characters for the 
Indian languages has been recognised by t he Go ver njn e n t^ 
and Bible Societies have already published a number of trans- 



/ 



30 

lations upon the same system. Commencements of the same 
kind have already been made in China by the Missionaries, 
and bid fair to succeed. 

In every one of these instances the question recurred : Which 
European orthography is to be adopted? Which alphabetical 
system best harmonises the diflPerent European orthographies, 
and allows most easily of the application of diacritical signs 
to represent sounds not contained in the languages of Europe? 

To this practical question, our proposal endeavours to furnish 
the answer. 

What has been done by Science for the Solution of this Problem^ 
tcp to the present Timef 

The want of a uniform orthography was first seriously felt 
with regard to the Oriental languages in the British possessions 
in India, where the study of those languages became a practical 
necessity. At the same time no country could better suggest 
a comprehensive discussion of this question; for here the two 
most perfect, and, at the same time, most opposite phonic and 
graphic systems, the Sanskrit and the Arabic, have met, and 
have been actually blended together in the Hindustani alphabet. 
This alphabet being essentially Arabic, and expressing the dif- 
ferent Sanskrit sounds by diacritical signs, we tind here the pro- 
blem, which we propose to ourselves in respect of the European 
graphic system, already fully and historically solved in the Arabic. 

The first person who took a comprehensive view of these 
difficulties, and undertook their solution as a problem worthy 
1% of his special attention, was Sir ^WiUiani Jones, a man of great 
learning and cultivated mind. He was President of the Asiatic 
Society in Bengal, and opened the first volume of its Transac- 
tions, published in Calcutta in 1788, with an Essay On the 
Orthography of Asiatic Words in Roman Letters. ^ 

1 Astatic Researches^ Yol. I, 1788, p. 1—56. The Essai was republished 
in the edition of his works, London, 1799. 



U, 



31 

He points out the desideratum in simple words % and lays 
down, as the first principle, that the orthogra]jhy of an^ lan- 
guage should_n.emr.itse the same letter for different sounds^ nor 
^W.^-^'^-i-^'^^i^^^ f^^^ ^^^^ "^^"*^ ^otind-; he_com^iains also of the 
great^com^iaation and perplexity of the present Englisk ortho- 
graphy in this respect. He declares himself opposed to the 
doubling of a vowel in order to represent its length; and in 
reference to the vowel-sjsiem he adopts the Italian or German 
notation. This was one of the most important steps towards 
reducing the European alphabets, as applied to foreign languages, 
to a uniform orthography. 

In reference to the consonants, he complains principally of the 
i^isiSSJiP^pLS^^il!^^^. .^^d Italic letters, in the same words.^ 

He justly admits (p. 13.) that the Sanskrit and Arabic alpha- 
bets represent the sounds of their languages so perfectly, that 
no character can be taken away from, or added to them, without 

^ The treatise begins : "Every man, who has occasion to compose tracts on 
Analic literature, or to translate from the Asiatic languages, must always find 
it convenient, and sometimes necessary, to express Arabian^ Indian, and 
Persian words, or sentences , in the characters generally used among Euro- 
peans; and almost every writer in those circumstances has a method of notation 
peculiar in himself: but none has yet appeared in the form of a complete 
system, so that each original sound may be rendered invariably by one appro- 
priated symbol, conformably to the natural order of articulation, and with a 
due regard to the primitive power of the Roman alphabet, which modern 
Europe has in general adopted. A want of attention to this object has 
occasioned great confusion in history and geography," etc. 

2 P. 7.: "Mr. Halhed (in his Bengal Grammar), having jws;^^ remarked, that 
the two greatest defects in the orthography of any language are the applicalion 
of the same letter to several different sounds, and of different letters to the 
same sound, truly pronounces them both so common in English, that he was 
exceedingly embarrassed in the choice of letters to express the sound of the 
Bengal vowels, and even to the last was by no means satisfied with his 
own selection." 

^ P. 8. : "If anything dissatisfies me in Mr. Ilalhed's clear and accurate system, 
it is the use of double letters for the long vowels (which might, however, be 
justified) and the frequent intermixture of Italic and Roman letters in the 
same word; which both in writing and printing must be very inconvenient." 




32 

manifest injury: and he unhesitatingly takes his stand not only 
against the vain endeavour to rQi^reseut J^'o reign sounds by^Jlag:- 
lish letters, but also against the introduction of entjrely jiew 
characters. 

He therefore recomments^ as the only suitable and efficient method^ 
the use of certain diacritical signs^ especially such as had already 
been adopted by several savans of France and England. 

These views are throughout so sound and so well founded 
on practical experience, that even at the present time they com- 
mand our full assent. If, nevertheless, the alphabet proposed 
by him was imperfect, this was owing partly to his defective 
knowledge of the general organism of sounds and of the distinct 
sounds to be represented, and partly to the imperfect appli- 
cation of his own principles.^ 

It is much to be regretted, that the distinguished scholar 
Gilchrist^ who had published many valuable works on the Hin- 
dustani language, and had thereby gained great influence in 
India, did not become acquainted with the essay of Sir William 
Jones till too late to make use of the system in his own works ^, 
as he afterwards wished he had done. It is principally owing 
to this circumstance, that the unsuitable English vowel-system 
according to which Mr. Gilchrist writes ee for l^oo for u^ qo 
for 10^ ou for aic^ was almost universally adopted in India. 

It is only since 1834 that the correct principles of Sir William 
Jones have obtained in India the consideration due to their im- 



^ He took, for instance, the Arabic xet for an aspirate like the indian hk, 
and the Arabic ydin for a compound sound instead of a simple one. He con- 
sidered the Arabic Linguals as so similar to the Indian Cerebrals that he 
employed the same characters for both, although they differ materially, and 
in the Hindustani are placed by the side of one another. He also gives to 
the letter h different significations accordingly as it stands alone or in con- 
nection with other letters, as sh {=s), th (=e), ch (= c) , citli {= ck). In 
the same manner he assigns yarious values to the letters c, s, and others. 

2 Grammar of the Hinclooslanee Language, by John Gilchrist. Calcutta, 1796. 
p. 1. His English and Hindoos tanee Dictionary had been published in 1787. 



33 

portance. This change was brought about by the critical inves- 
tigations and influential exertions of Sir Charles Trevelyan^ who 
was, for many years, connected with the administration of India. 
He contended successfully against the English voio^/- system, 
supported by the works of Mr. Gilchrist, and secured the more 
general adoption of the German, Italian, or ancient Latin me- . 
thod , as proposed by Sir W. Jones. The former system may 
now be regarded as antiquated in India. 

But though the exertions of Sir W. Jones and Sir C. Tre- 
velyan have introduced a more correct t-oi^'^/- system, it yet 
remains that the same principles be applied to the consonant - 
system, in which there has been no amendment since the time 
of Sir W. Jones ^, jjth^jogh it has been equally needed. 

In the meantime an event occurred in France, which directed 
the attention of the learned to the necessity of establishing a 
consistent system of transcribing foreign alphabets into Euro- 
pean letters. 

The scientific results of the famous Egyptian Expedition were 
directed to be published by a commission of the most distin- 
guished scholars, appointed for that "purpose. The Geographical 
Atlas, consisting of 47 maps of the largest size, contained nearly 
5000 Arabic words. These were to be written in Latin letters, 
and upon an accurate and intelhgible system. For this purpose 
special conferences were instituted in the year 1803, in which 
Messrs. Volney ^ Monge^ Bertholet, L angles , Sylvestre de Sacy, 
Caussin, Lacroix^ Baudeuf, Marcel^ and Michel Aheyd took part. 

The first of these , C. T. Volney (who on account of his poli- 
tical services at a later period was made a Count by Napoleon 
and a Peer by Louis XVIIL), had written in 1795 an Arabic 



^ Mr. John Pickering also adopted the vowel-system of Sir W. Jones in his 
Essay on a uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America, 
but he retarded rather than advanced a correct system of Consonants. This 
Essay was first published by the Amer. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, of which 
he was a member; and also separately in Cambridge, U. S., 1820. 



34 

grammar, under the.. title, Simplification des langues orientates, 
ou methode nouoelle et facile d'apprendre les langues Arabe, Per- 
sane et Turque^ avec des caracteres Europeens, Paris ^ an III. 
He here speaks of the advantage which the use of European 
letters affords in learning the Arabic language ; and proposes 
a method for representing the Arabic alphabet in the Latin 
characters. This transcription was founded on no definite prin- 
ciples, but yet was guided by the correct feeling, that every 
simple sound should be represented by a single sign or cha- 
racter, a rule, from which he only deviated in one case, by 
writing ai for e. This led him to seek some single signs to 
represent the three simple sounds not found in the Latin alpha- 
bet, viz. German cli, English th and sh. For the two first he 
chose the Greek letters j and ^9-, but for the third he in- 
vented the entirely new character ^. All other foreign sounds 
he sought to represent by graphic modifications of the letters 
most nearly expressing those sounds, not indeed by the addi- 
tion of disconnected marks of distinction, but by a change of 
the characters themselves, as for instance, ^, if , <?, ^. 

The Commission of 1803 started upon this principle, and 
adopted the system for the geographical maps, yet with a change 
of nearly all the single characters. This change aimed at sim- 
plification, but only substituted one arbitrary system in the 
place of another, and even gave up some material advantages 
of the first plan. The characters j[ and ^ were set aside for 
t and t , w^hereby these letters were erroneously placed among 
the explosive letters; and the representation of the German sch 
by the single character 9 , which , though inconvenient , was 
rigbt in principle, was given up for the inaccurate compound 
ch: and instead of ^, cf, etc., f, ^, were written. But they 
did not stop here: they introduced for the Bescription de VE- 
gypte an orthography which dispensed entirely with all diacri- 
tical signs; which on this account was both materially incor- 
rect and decidedly antagonistic to the principle of using always 



35 

a single character for a simple sound. ^ Thus they wrote ou, 
ey ^ kJi, gh, cA, for our ?^ , ^y X""- ^9 ^' 

With this method Volney himself could not be satisfied. He 
therefore took up the same subject again at a later period, and 
published in 1818 his well-known treatise: U Alphabet Eiiropeen 
appliqe aux Langues Asiatiques. This title expresses more 
than the book contains. The first half of the volume is taken 
up with the investigation of those sounds which belong to the 
European languages, and shows that the writer possessed but 
little native talent for investigations of this nature.^ The second 
half treats exclusively of the Arabic Alphabet into the sounds 
of which he likewise does not penetrate very deeply. For the 
linguals he gives up the curves, and adds instead a short line 
under each letter, viz. t, d^ s, 0. The characters "k or kh he 
changes again to 2, a^id t (='}) to t or 5, and the character 
for the corresponding soft sound to z. For sh he proposes 
a lengthened or old-fashioned 5, viz. f, or an inverted j\ f; 
while for X, ^, ^, ( = /i, /, /), he retains the additions, although 
he changes their forms. The notations of the vowels also un- 
derwent changes. At the close, he makes an attempt to apply 
his system of notation to the Hebrew, and the first line of his 
Hebrew Lord's Prayer will give a good idea of the awkwardness 
of this third method of writing. It is the following (p. 209.): 
abimo f'" ^^ [''mini i" q"dd"[ [fm-k''. 



^ Both transcriptions are placed by the side of the Arabic names in the 
Index Geographique , vhich forms vol. xviii. of Panckoucke's edition. 

^ He discovers a difference between French ee or ez> {donnee, donnez) and 
the simple e (arme^ bonte), and finds the former again in the German eh 
(dehnen), the latter in the German besser , or in the English red, head: 
s. p. 49 - 52. He pronounces the nasal in the German Anker as in the French 
Ancre, p. 59; the German 2, he resolves into ds, p. 83; and the Arabic yain 
he calls a grasseyement dur, in opposition to the grasseyement doux of the 
modern Greek y , p. 100. The German ch in ich he places as a soft sound 
by the hard sound in hwch , p. 103, etc. , etc. 



36 

No one of the three editions of Volney's system met with 
any approbation or adoption, because his proposal was ba- 
sed neither upon scientific nor upon practical principles, be- 
cause it embraced in its field of view only the Arabic alpha- 
bet, and because it admitted no direct application to other 
languages and especially not to those of India. 

His exertions, however, were not forgotten, as by his will 
he founded an annual prize to be conferred by the Institute 
of France. This legacy was designated: Potir le meilleur ou- 
vrage relatif a V etude philosophique des langues^ and at the same 
time the wish was expressed: d^encourager tout travail tendant 
a donner suite et execution a une metliode de transcrire les langues 
Asiatiques en lettres Eicropeennes. This endowment, which was 
recognised by an Ordonnance of 1820, has produced many 
good results for the advancement of linguistic science, but it 
has conduced so little to the solution of the problem in question, 
that the French Academy finally determined to omit this sub- 
ject in their Programme, and only to propose exercises on 
comparative grammar. ^ The system of Sir W. Jones, which had 

^ Compare Memo'ires de V Institut de France^ Academie des Inscr. et Belles 
Lettres, tome xiv., Paris, 1845, p. 7 seqq. In the year 1835 a book appeared 
by A. E. Schleiermacher: De V Influence de Vecrifure sur le language, Me- 
moire qui en 1828 a partage le prix fonde par M, le comte de Volney, suivi 
de Grammaires Barmane et Malaie, el d'un apergu de V alphabet harmonique 
pour Ics langues Asiatiques que V Institut Royal de France a couronne en 1827. 
The author gives in the preface p. ix seqq. a transcription of the Devanagari, 
the Bengali, and four Slavonic alphabets, with respect to an Alphabet har- 
monique, which he exhibits in the Aper(;u mentioned on the title. But, as 
in neither place the reasons of this transcriptions are developed, and as 
the complete Memoir on the Alphabet harmonique has hitherto not been 
published, we must abstain from offering any opinion on it. The peculiar 
division, however, in 16 gutturales, 12 palatales, 15 sifflantes, 16 linguales, 
9 labiales, 9 nasales, and 16 melees, and the 5 subdivisions of lettres simples^ 
varices, fortes, mouillees , and aspirees, seem to indicate that the author 
starts from a physiological and linguistic basis different from that which 
we consider the correct one. At the same time, however, the principle of 
using single signs for simple sounds is constantly observed. 



37 

proceeded upon more correct principles and upon a broader basis, 
was, indeed, occasionally alluded to by Volney, but never followed. 
No language has a system of sounds more rich and regularly 
developed than the Sanskrit^ or expresses them so perfectly by 
its alphabets. The old grammarians of India did not, indeed? 
invent the Devanagari characters, but they brought them to 
the state of perfection which they now possess. With an 
acumen worthy of all admiration, with physiological and lin- 
guistic views more accurate than those of any other people, 
these grammarians penetrated so deeply into the relations of 
sounds in their own language, that we at this day may gain 
instruction from them, for the better understanding of the sounds 
of our own languages. On this account no language and no 
alphabet are better suited to serve, not indeed as an absolute 
rule, but as a starting-point for the construction of a universal 
linguistic alphabet^ than that of ancient India. 

Hence it is that the late progress in the solution of the 
alphabet - problem has been associated in Europe, as formerly 
in India, with Sanskrit studies; especially since these studies 
were made the foundation of the new science of Comparative 
Philology. Here Bopp took the lead. In the earlier editions 
of his Sanskrit Grammar he had still employed the German 
compounds tsch, tschh^ dsch^ dschh^ sch, ng, kJi^ &c. ; but later, 
in his Comparative Grammar^ published in 1833, he introduced 

1 single letters for all these sounds, and distinguished the va- 
rious classes of sounds by certain uniform diacritical marks. 
This orthography was soon adopted by the very numerous school 

i of German and other linguists, and may now be regarded as 
the historical basis upon which, on account of its intrinsic value 
as well as its extensive use in science, the future superstructure 
must be built. H. Brockhaus'^^ Benary^ Gorresio^ Roth, Benfey^ 

^ We mention particularly his Essay Ueher den Druck Sanscritischer Werke 
mit lateiniscken Buchslahen, Leipzig 18M , in whicli he presents important 
■considerations on the scientific advantage of printing large Sanskrit works 
in Latin letters. 



38 



I 



BothUngh, MUler, Stenzler, Lassen, Webe,; and many others 
have adopted this principle, although, in particular instances, 
they have often dififered among themselves as to the choice 
of the diacritical marks. But all these men had either the Samknt 
language alone in view, or at most those of the same family. 
On the other hand, the Semitic scholars were equally exclu- 
sive, and generally retained the use of A, kh, gh, th, dh, for 
our S-, r, /, <9, ^. Yet some among them acknowledge the 
pvmcUe\{ single characters for simple sounds, of whom we 
mention especially Caspari and Fleischer. The latter an emi- 
nent scholar in the Semitic languages, and formerly himself a 
follower of the old method of writing, adopted in Us Perstan 
Grammar, puWished in 1847, the signs g, i,h, /', ff', ^,h^ in- 
stead of the double letters; as he had at an earlier period 
chosen the Greek chracter for the English th. 

After progress had thus been made by both parties acting 
independently of each other, it became necessary to discover a 
.general system which might comprehend the two most important, 
but at the same time most widely separated, groups of the prin- 
cipal known languages. And it was evident that such a com- 
prehensive system required a broader basis than any which had 
heretofore been proposed. That basis was to be discovered in 
the common ground from which both had started , namely, the 
physiology of the human voice, which is the common ground and 
standard, not only for the two above-mentioned groups of 
languao-es, but also for all the languages of the globe 

The^human voice has its natural bounds, beyond which no 
development of sounds is possible. Hence the apparent infini- 
tude of articulate sounds does not consist in a boundless extent, 
but rather in an endless divisibility, within assignable limits. 



. I„ his Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Mannscrrftsi« 
the Catalogus librorum manmcr. in bibl. senator. Irpnenn, by R. E. «««««»« 
Grimmaj. 1838. 4°. 



39 

They may all be classified upon a physiological basis, so that 
every sound may find its proper position in the general system. 

Since the laws of the physical organism are unchangeable, 
it is only necessary to understand them correctly, and to observe 
their application to linguistic science. 

In this department much has been effected, and most impor- 
tant steps have been taken tovrards a solution of the problem. 
We may here refer to the labours oi Kempelen, Liscovius^ Dzondi^ 
Willis^ Briicke^ Czermak^ and principally to the researches of 
Joh. MilUer.^ 

The results also of physiological investigations have in several 
instances been applied to the science of language by R. vo7i 
Raumer, Rapp^ Schleicher^ Bindseil^ Heyse^ and others. 

Hence it appears that all previous conditions of the problem 
have been fulfilled. It has become possible to construct an alpha- 
bet, based on physiological principles, answering all the requi- 
rements of linguistic science, and embracing all the sounds con- 
tained in the two great alphabetical systems of Asia. This 
possibility alone justified, and indeed demanded, a new effort 
to reach the goal. Nevertheless, this attempt might perhaps 
have still been long deferred, or even given up entirely, on 
account of the great practical difficulties which oppose every 
attempt at union in the republic of letters , if another and more 
lively impulse had not been given to it, within the last few 
years, from another cpiarter. 

What has been done by the Missionary Societies for the 
Solution of the Question^ 

We have stated above, that the want of a uniform alphabet 
for those nations which are to be gained over to Christianity 
and civilisation, and which have no written language, is more 
and more strongly felt every day in missionary labours. The 

^ Handbuch der Physiologie des- Menschen, Baud 2. p. 180 sqq. 1840. 



40 

difficulty of introducing a convenient alphabet into practice is 
here much less than in the scientific world, as the Directors 
may recommend such an alphabet to the missionaries dispersed 
over the whole earth, which will usually be a sufficient mo- 
tive for its reception. 

The first recommendation from such a quarter was issued in 
the year 1848 by the Hon. Secretary of the Church Missionary 
Society^ the Rev. Henry Venti^ under the title, Rules for redu- 
cing unwritten languages to alphabetical wanting in Roman charac- 
ters^ ivith reference especially to the languages spoken in Africa. 
We quote the first two paragraphs, which represent the mis- 
sionary point of view in a clear and comprehensive manner: 
"The want of a standard system of orthography has been expe- 
rienced by all persons engaged in the study of unwritten lan- 
guages. Each translator having to choose his own system, it 
has not unfrequently happened that two or more persons en- 
gaged upon the same language have adopted different systems. 
This has prevented, in a great measure, the mutual assistance, 
which the parties might have rendered each other; and has 
retarded the formation of primers and educational works, and 
the translation of the Holy Scriptures." 

"To obviate these difficulties, several of the Missionary So- 
cieties, whose missionaries are engaged in Vernacular Trans- 
lations of African languages, have proposed the adoption of 
a common system of orthography, to be regarded as a standard 
system, and to be employed, as far as possible, in all works 
printed under their sanction. If in any particular case devia- 
tions from the system be thought necessary by the Translators, 
it is proposed that such deviations shoidd he referred home before 
their adoption in printed works." 

This proposal adopts and consistently maintains the true prin- 
ciple, that every simple sound is to be expressed by a single 
sign, and rectifies the English vowel -system. 

In the year 1849, the attention of the American Mission of 



41 

Port Natal was drawn towards the difficulties of the orthography 
adopted for the Zulu language, and they submitted the subject 
to the examination of a committee. 

About the same time the want of new signs for newly dis- 
covered African sounds, was felt in several other African Mis- 
sions; and some such signs were introduced into various books, 
as in those published by the Norwegian Society at Natal^ by the 
English Church Mission among the Suaheli on the eastern coast, 
and by the American hoard on the Gaboon river in the west, 
also in Applegard^s Kaffir Grammar, printed for the Weslegan 
Society, at King William's Town. These circumstances led the 
Committee at Port Natal, in March, 1850, to address a general 
circular to the friends of Missions and African civilisation, pro- 
posing a plan for securing a uniform orthography for writing 
the South African dialects. In further pursuance of their plan, 
an essay was communicated in October, 1852, to the Confe- 
rence of the American Oriental Society, at New York, and prin- 
ted in vol. III. No. II, 1853, p. 421. sqq. of the Publications of 
this Society, under the title. An Essay on the Phonology and 
Orthography of the Zulu and kindred dialects in Southern Africa, 
by the Rev. Lewis Grout, Miss, of the Amer. Board in Southern 
Africa. 

The general principles and requirements of an alphabet, adop- 
ted especially' for African languages , are here developed with 
accuracy and acumen, and are applied in particular to the Zulu 
language, including the clicks peculiar to the most southern 
African languages. This alphabet, however, is not based on 
a sufficiently comprehensive system of phonology, and the single 
letters consequently are not arranged according to their natural 
affinities. The Sanskrit and other written languages were not 
taken into account, and the former use of compound consonants 
is supplied partly by altering the form of letters, partly by com- 
bining them with diacritical signs, as -q, ij, h, r, f, or , or 
5, or 5, for our n, n, ^i y -> ^' 

D 



42 

In the Autumn of 1852, the author of the present paper, being 
in London, had the opportunity of discussing this subject (which 
had occupied his mind for several years) with some of the most 
influential members of Missionary Committees : and he was in- 
vited by the Rev. H. Venn to furnish him with a development 
of his alphabet, which appeared suitable for general adoption 
and conformable on the whole to the ^Rules^ Mr. Venn pro- 
posed to transmit such an explanation of the alphabet to the 
Missionaries. Prevented, at that time, from complying with 
this wish, he simply communicated a tableau of the alphabet, 
which was inserted by Mr. Venn in a second edition of the 
«i?w?6s",in 1853. 

Soon afterwards the author was again induced to direct his 
special attention to this subject, by a visit of the Rev. S. W. 
Kolle^ in consequence of which he determined to bring forward 
his own long prepared project, after discussing it minutely with 
this gentleman, whose valuable contributions to African philo- 
logy have been already mentioned. It was now judged proper 
to publish the proposed alphabet, which had hitherto only been 
communicated privately to several of the most distinguished 
linguistic scholars. 

The author therefore resolved to explain the principles of his 
plan in an essay to be read in a general sitting of the Academy 
of Berlin^ and to propose at the same time that the Academy 
should examine the alphabet in question, and, if approved, have 
types cut and cast for printing it. This proposal was laid be- 
fore the historico-philological class, and a committee appointed, 
composed of Professors Bopp^ Jacob Grimm ^ Pertz, Gerhard^ 
Busckmann^ with the assistance of Professor J. Muller from the 
physical class. This Committee approved the plan, with the 
exception of one member who denied in general the usefulness 
of all such endeavours; and on the 23rd of January the Class 
ordei^ed the cutting and casting of the proposed types^ which have 
consequently been used in the present pages. 



43 

About the same time, the interest on the subject having 
greatly increased, chiefly from the progress of Missions, a new 
step was taken in London for the furtherance of the object in 
view. Chevalier Bmisen^ whose reputation as a statesman, a 
scholar, and a friend of every important Christian movement 
is universally acknowledged, called a meeting of distinguished 
men, more or less interested in the question, among whom we 
may name. Profs. Wilson, M. Midler^ Owen^ Dietrich^ Sir C. Tre- 
velyan, Sir John Herschel, Hon. Mr. Stanley, Messrs. Norris^ 
Pertz from Berlin, Bahhage^ Wheatstone^ and Cull; the Rev. 
Messrs. Venn^ Chapman^ Dr. Trumjjp, and Kolle^ and Mr. 
Graham of the Church Missionary Society, — the Rev. Mr. 
Arthur of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, — the Rev. Mr. 
Trestrail and Mr. JJnclerhill of the Baptist Missionary Society. 
The author also had the honour of being invited to this meeting, 
and was happy to be present at the three last conferences. 
These were occupied principally with the physiological basis, 
which was generally acknowledged to be necessary, and was 
adopted without much dissent by the assembly. 

With regard to the graphic system to be employed, three 
different proposals were examined. 

T\iQ first was supported by Sir Charles Trevelya7i (above, p. 31), 
who recommended the orthography which originated with Sir 
W. Jones, and which has been frequently applied in India. Its 
merits and soundness, in comparison with that of Gilchrist, 
were fully acknowledged; but at the same time its want of a 
physiological basis, and of a complete development in detail, 
could not be overlooked. 

The second^ by Prof. M. Midler^ proposed to mark the devia- 
tions from known European sounds by printing the known 
letters in Roman characters, the foreign in italics. The principal 
objections against this intermixture of Roman and italic letters, 
of which Sir W. Jones had already decidedly disapproved (see 
above, p. 29), were the following : — This plan would exclude 

D2 



44 

the ordinary significance of italics, which could hardly be sup- 
plied by any other means; neither is it applicable at all to 
writing. On these grounds it would prove most inconvenient 
for all missionary purposes. It would not meet the cases in 
which a Euroin^aii letter undergoes more than one modification, 
and would thus be incapable of expressing even whole classes 
of sounds. Finally, this theory, neglecting the continuity of 
historical development, introduces a novelty, which it can hardly 
be expected will be universally adopted.^ 

The third proposal was that of the author, and its object 
was on.ly to bring the orthography hitherto used in science 
into uiore exact conformity with the law^s of physiology, and 
to adapt it to practical purposes. 

The object of the Uicetings was rather to prepare the ques- 
tion for frniher discussion and examination, than to adopt re- 
solutions whic-h should be considered as binding. The physio- 
logical system of phonology upon which the [)roposed alphabet 
had been based, was acknowh^lged to be substantially soimd. 
And the author considers himself justified in stating that with 
respect also to the graphic system the views of the majority did 
not widely difier from his proposal. 

The most imi)ortant result of this conference, in the author's 
apprehension, was the determination announced at the last 
meeting in reference to the practical object of this alphabet. 
Mr Veim expiessed his "conviction that the interests of Mis- 
sions would allow of no longer delay in the adoption of a 
standard cdphabet: that the Church Missionary and other So- 
cieties had already substantially adopted, for this pm^pose, that 
of Professor Lepsius: and that as nothing had been concluded 
upon by this conference which held out any prospect of super- 
seding or materially improving it, he and the parties with whom 
he acted must go forward in the course upon which they had 

^ [See Preface of this edition p. 12.] 



il 



45 

entered; and without pledging their Missionaries to the adoption 
Qf_e yftry mi iLLk:_Q]i .sign , in every case, they must put forward ^^ 
Professor Lepsius's system as the standard; and all departures 
from it must be carefully canvassed, and marked as deviations, 
in works printed by the Societies." 

The author was also requested to draw up the present sketch 
for the purpose of communication to missionaries. At the same 
time the Berlin Academy was requested to have two sets of 
their types struck off for the Church Missionary Society, that 
the forms of the characters mio-ht be identical ; and orders were 
given for the execution in these types of two works on African 
languages, already prepared for the press. 

It is hoped that this determination may be favourably re- 
garded by all other Missionary Societies. We do not expect 
that everybody should agree in every detail of this alphabet; 
but it is not unreasonable to hope that it will be considered 
as a standard^ and as affording a common basis by which other 
alphabets may be brought into the greatest possible agreement. 
Different languages may require different modifications. INo 
language will require all the diacritical signs which must ap- 
pear in the complete alphabet; while some languages may re- 
quire still other marks of distinction peculiar to theniselves. It 
is therefore necessary that the system should be elastic enough 
to admit of such reduction and enlargement without alteration 
in its essential principles. Cases may even arise in which 
material deviations from the proposed alphabet may appear 
unavoidable, and be advocated, on sufficient grounds, hy scho- 
lars engaged in such researches. In all such cases, it is hoped 
that the Committees of Societies will require the reasons of 
such deviations to be laid before them and discussed, before ^^^Jjr* 
the deviations are introduced into books printed by their autho- "^^ 
rity. This principle is most important for the furtherance of 
the object in view, and was repeatedly insisted upon by Mr. 
Venn, as indeed it had been already laid down in the '^Rides''' 



46 

(see above) issued by the Committee of his Society in the 
year 1848. 

After these preliminaries we pass on to develop 

The System proposed. 

A comprehensive exposition of the physiological basis would 
here be out of place. We must limit ourselves to facilitating 
the understanding of the system. This will be best accom- 
plished by not separating the phonic from the graphic system, 
but by presenting the former immediately in its application to 
the latter. We do not enlarge, therefore, on the definition of 
Voice and Sound ^ of Voioel and Consonant^ and other physio- 
logical explanations, and shall only refer to them as necessity 
may demand. 

A. The System of Vowels. 

There are three primary vowels , as there are three primary 
colours. Like the latter, they can be best represented by the 
analogy of a triangle, at the top of which is to be placed a, at the 
basis i and t^ (pronounced as in the German and Italian languages). 



U 



The other vowels are formed between these three, as all co- 
lours between red, yellow, and blue. In the most ancient lan- 
guages these three primary vowels only were sufficiently distinct 
to be marked in writing even when short. The Hieroglyphical, 
Indian, oldest Hebrew, and Gothic systems of writing admitted 
either of no other vowels at all, or at least of no other short 
vowels ; in Arabic writing, even now, none but these three are 
distinguished. 

Next after these were formed, the intermediate vowels e be- 
tween a and *, o between a and w, and the sound of the Ger- 



47 

man u (French ii,) between i and u , also that of the German 6 
(French etc) between e and o. , Thus arose the pyramid^ 

a 
e 
i a u. 
The distance between a and i and that between a and u is 
greater than that between i and u. The intermediate vowels 
e and o were, therefore, divided each into two vowels, of which 
one was nearer to «, the other nearer to i or u\ and in the 
same manner two sounds were formed out of o. All these vowels 
exist in European languages, and compose the following pyramid : 
Germ, a 
Fr. e Fr. eu b Ital. 

(in pe?/r) 

Fr. e Fr. eu au Fr. 

(in pew) 

Germ, i Germ, u u Germ. 

We might have wished to maintain for the middle series of 
vowels the two dots over the ti and o, on account of the ge- 
nerally known precedent in the German orthography, the French 
double letter eu not answering the simple nature of the sound. 
A practical objection, however, to this mode is found in the 
circumstance, that occasionally over every vowel the sign of 
long ' and short ", and also that of the accent of the word 
will be necessary, for which the whole space over the letter 
is required. We have preferred, therefore, to preserve the 
two dots, and to place them under the vowel, as g and u. 

The distinction of the two modes of pronouncing e and o 
cannot be marked by the French accents, partly because the 
upper space is wanted for other signs too generally in use to 
be dispensed with, and partly because the acute accent would 

^ It may be compared with the following pyramid of primary and mixed 
colours : 

red, 

orange, brown, violet, 

yellow, green, blue. 



48 

not be distinguished from the accent of the word. We add, 
therefore, as others have done before us, a line below to mark 
the broad open vowels e, o, and a dot below, to mark the 
pointed and closed vowels e, p, the shape of these marks of- 
fering a certain analogy to the pronunciation itself. 

From these combinations, the following system results. 

a 

& Q Q 

^ Q 

i u u 

We must mention, however, one other vowel, which exists 
in almost all languages, and ought not to be neglected by lin- 
guists. This is the indistinct vowel-sound from which, according 
to the opinion of some scholars, the other vowels, as it were, 
issued and grew into individuality, and to which the unaccented 
vowels of our non European languages in their old age often 
return, as in the English words nation, velvet; the German 
lieben, Verstand; the French sabre, tenir. This vovel comes 
among the clear sounding vowels next to o, being itself a 
mixture of all the others, but it is capable of various shades, 
and sometimes approaches nearer to «, and sometimes to i or 
u. From all of these, however, as also from p, it is distin- 
guished by the absence of that clear resonance common to the 
others, which is lost by partially contracting the mouth or 
even closing it entirely: in the latter case it is heard through 
the nose. ^ This vowel is inherent in all soft fricative conso- 
nants, as well as in the first part of the nasal explosive sounds 
(see below); whence all these letters as |, w, m, appear some- 
times as forming syllables. ^ It assumes the strongest reso- 
nance, as may be easily explained on physiological grounds, 

* It may be compared to grey, \vliich also does not belong to the series 
of indmdual colours. 
2 In the Chinese language, for instance, s is used as a vovel in the roots 

St , tSZ: 



49 

in combination with r and Z, which, as is well known, appear 
in Sanskrit as v and /, with all the qualities of the other vo- 
wels. We should feel inclined to represent this sound by the 
Greek letter £, in order to distinguish it more fully from all 
the other vowels, and to fall in with the practice of Ludolf, 
Isenberg, Piccolomini, and others. However, there are strong 
objections to this: for it is not only very desirable to confine 
ourselves as much as possible to the use of Latin characters, 
but the ancient and modern pronunciation of the Greek e is 
also as different from the sound we wish to represent as that 
of the Latin e. Besides this, we represent the same sound in 
the vocalised consonants by a little circle (as /, r, n) ^ and so 
it seems but natural to transfer this mark to the vowels. Ac- 
cordingly we take the letter ^, which, in most European ortho- 
graphies , is used for an indefinite vowel ^ , and subscribe the 
little circle to it (e). Hereby we gain the advantage that we 
can easily provide signs for those cases where the indefinite 
vowel approaches more closely to any of the common vowels, 
by subscribing the circle to them (as a^ f, o, u). Such a case 
occurs, e. g. , in the Kanuri or Bornu language, where Mr. 
Kolle^ finds it necessary to distinguish between e and a. 

[If we compare herewith the vowel-system of the English 
language and certain dialectic shades of vowels in other 
European languages, this pyramid of the vowels, it is true, 
is not sufficient for their complete notation. In the EngHsh 
language a new degree comes in between the top of the py- 
ramid formed by the pure a, and the first row from it viz. 
ego. It will not be useless perhaps to add some observations 
on this point, although these sounds as far as we know are 
not developed in the foreign languages which form our spe- 
cial object, and it would therefore hardly seem necessary to 
settle their transcription. 



1 Burnouf , Roger, Endlicher, Petermann, Edwards, also Bopp and Sckoti 
and others write e. 
* In his Grammar of the Bornu or Kanuri Language. London, 1854. 



50 

In the English language the pure full a has almost entirely 
disappeared, being divided into two sounds, one of which ap- 
proaches to e, the other to o, both still bearing traces of 
their origin. This applies still more to the short than to the 
long sound. Although the a in father, master, pas% half, demand, 
aunt, loapa^ is not unfrequently pronounced pretty full and 
most resembling to the German and Italian «, yet according to 
others the most approved pronunciation softens its sound percep- 
tibly towards e. We may write it for the present a. Still more 
decidedly the short a of hat^ catch, have, wax, marry takes 
the same direction. On the other side it is well known how 
nearly the a in ivater^ all, hroad^ fault, approaches to o. It is 
more open i. e. it is nearer to the a than the French o is in 
or, encore^ sonne. Let us indicate it now by a. The cor- 
responding short sound is heard in what^ wasp^ as well as 
in hot, horrid^ and is more open than o in the French vote, 
the German Gott. On the same degree of the scale as the sounds 
a and a we find a short sound in the middle column which 

e o 

leads from a to o and u^ viz. the vowel in but, cut^ son, does, 
hlood a sound still more peculiar to the English language. 
We might, following the analogy of the two other sounds 
of this row, write it a, but we prefer the simpler nota- 
tion 0. Thus we get as a new row peculiar to the most 
approved English pronunciation the line of sounds a o a. 

Another peculiarity of the English language by which the 
vowel system is influenced, is the double pronunciation of r. 
When this letter is followed by a vowel, it is pronounced as 
a dental consonant with the top of the tongue as in other 
languages. When it closes a syllable or is followed by a con- 
sonant or a mute vowel, it changes its nature and becomes 
a vowel, exactly in the same sense in which the ancient In- 
dians looked upon their r as a vowel ; to which it would cor- 
respond exactly if it were not pronounced on the guttural in- 
stead of the cerebral point of the mouth. The tongue and 
the soft palate are put, at the guttural point, into a slight 



51 

sounding vibration without friction. The dental r thus be- 
comes a guttural vocalic r, which in our system may be ren- 
dered very accurately by f. This sound appears most unblen- 
ded in words like /w?-, her^ Sir^ word, waiter, steward, splen- 
dour &c. The same sound becomes distinctly perceptible, like 
the second half of the diphthons^s ir er ur or air aur in 
words like year, swear, moor, borne, hire, hour; but it blends 
more closely with the vowels of the higher degrees, in ar ar or^ 
as in far, war, horn, curve, because a a g are formed at a spot 
nearer to the place of its own. As a short sound it appears 
only in mute or quite unaccented syllables of the common 
conversation' like er or r, as in waiter, steward. When such 
a diphthong is followed by a vowel, f is resolved into the 
consonant r, as is the Sanskrit r in r, f i. star, starry; abhor, 
abhorrent; swear, swearing, which are pronounced: star, stdri; 
dhhaf, dbhdrent; sivef, swerin. The preceding vowels in these 
combinations have no distinct quahfication of long or short, 
but must be considered as ambiguous, in a similar manner as 
the nasalized vowels in the French language; yet together 
with f they always form a long sound, being a diphthong. 
Frequently f exercises an influence upon the quality of the 
vowels combined with it; and certain vocalic shades are pro- 
nounced only before f ; f. i. ^ in gr is more closed than o, cur- 
tain being pronounced more closed than cut; and even er and 
or in swear, four seem to be pronounced somewhat more open 
than e and o in way and no, not distinctly enough, it is true, 
to take notice of. 

In the French language also the pure a not unfrequently 
inclines towards an altered pronunciation. In Paris, femme 
it has clearly a sharper sound; and in common language a 
is often heard instead of a in passer and others, and a in- 
stead of a in pas and others. In Germany also: a is a 
provincial pronunciation, as in Prussia proper Fd^ister is 
spoken instead of Fenster, whilst a and a are frequently 
heard in the common Saxon dialect. In the south of Ger- 



52 



many e is decidedly distinct from e ov e, f. i. in BeU, Stelle 
by the side of fett, hellen &c. On the contrary people born 
in Berlin do not distinguish ^ or ^ from e^ but pronounce loer, 
heten instead of iver ^ heten. 

These remarks will suffice to explain the following table^ into 
the details of which it is not necessary to enter, though they 
may perhaps imply some slight deviation from what has been 
received hitherto; we add a few examples of pronunciation. 



English. 

d(d)ar 



' § - 

e - er 

' o 

I I ir 

c 

a past 
ar heart 

o 

a hat 

e 

e head 
e hate 
er sioear 

' o 

I heat 
I hit 
ir year 
hid 
or fur 



a a ar 

o o o° 



- - 

- or - - - 

- - - \Q - 07 

— h7^4 

a naught 
iohat^ hot 
ar tear 

o o 

note 
or borne 
u hoot 
10 hood 
nr moor 



French. 

add 

e e § g g q\ o g 

I _ " j _ 
e - - g ' -\o - - 

I I -\uii-\u ii - 



a male 

a mat 

d an 

e etre 

e nette 

e lin 

e epee 

I ctme 

I vite 

g peur 

6 heurter 



g un 
p peu 
u silr 
u sur 
cor 
vote 
on 
Q cone 
u sourd 
ii sourde 



German. 



e e 


a a 
'9 




9 ' 
u u 



a That 

a hat 

e Bar 

e fett 

e Weh 

I mir , 

I mit 

Horner 

Konig 

u Thilr 

U dilrr 



(a) (d) 
Q 
(o) 

u a 

Sonde 
p Mond 
u gut 
a Kutte 



If we leave out of question the prosodial length, the com- 
plete pyramid of the European vowels may thus be traced: 



a 

a 

1 o 

9 Q 

9 ? 

u u 



53 



But we have already observed that this accurate subdivision 
of vow^els iu our European languages needs not be applied to 
foreign languages. It would even be practically inconvenient 
to look for and to denote such subdivisions, instead of ranging 
them, where they may exist, under the more general heads 
— as far as it can be done without oifence to the linguistic 
feeling. We should therefore not hesitate to reduce even- 
tually the above pyramid to the simpler one without the se- 
cond row, by the following parallelisms: 





English. 


French. 


German. 


a 


pastj heart 


male 


That 


a 


hat 


mal 


hat 


a 


— 


an 


— 


e 


— 


etre 


Bar 


e 


head 


nette 


fett 


e 


— 


lin 


— 


e 


hate^ swear 


epee 


Weh 


I 


heat., year 


ctme 


mir 


I 


hit 


vite 


mit 





— 


•peur 


— 


'o 


hut, fur 


heurter 


Horner 


9 


— 


un 


— 


9 


— 


peu 


Konig 


¥ 


— 


sur 


Thur 


u 


— 


sur 


dm^r 


Q 


naughty war 


cor 


— 


Q 


what^ hot 


vote 


Sonde 


Q 


— 


on 


— 





note, home 


cone 


Mond 


U 


hoot., moor 


sourd 


gut 


u 


hood 


sourde 


Kutte 



We pass to another question respecting the vowels and ask: 
what is the position of the Russian "hard" i bi, the Polish 



54 

?/, in our system? We have to answer it so much the more 
as this vowel appears also in many other eastern languages. 

The vowel ti takes the middle between i and u. The phy- 
siological reason is that in forming the «, the lips are broad, 
the tongue slightly elevated and stretched out, whilst, in 
forming the it the lips are round and put forwards, the 
tongue drawn back in itself, so that in the forepart of the 
mouth a cavity is formed, the diameter of which is greater 
than its entrance and issue ; which is the reason of the hollow 
sound of this vowel. In forming the u^ the lips have the 
position of the u^ the tongue the position of the i. So we 
are right in saying that u takes the middle between i and ^o. 
But it is on the other hand evident, that there must exist 
still another middle which has the same right to be counted 
as a peculiar sound. For we may form a vowel in such a 
manner, that the lips take the broad position of the ^, and 
the tongue is withdrawn as in the to. This is the vowel 
which is called in the Slavonic languages the hard ?, the yeri 
hi of the Russians, which we write i. 

The origin however of this sound is, according to my opi- 
nion, not in the Slavonic, but in the Tataric languages, where 
we find it in the Turkish, Turkmenic, Yakutic, and other 
cognate languages. Here this vowel is an essential part of 
the so called harmonic vowel system , whose peculiar arrange- 
ment demanded it as a necessary complement^. Vestiges of 

^ Without entering into the details of this question , we remark only, 
that the distinction of the lower and darker vowels a o w on the one side, 
and the sharper and clearer vowels e o m i on the other, exists in all lan- 
guages and manifests itself in different ways. The same opposition however 
is of much greater influence in those languages, where it forms, as in the 
Mantschu, Mongolian, Kalmuki , Turkish, Jakutic, Hungrian, Finnic and 
others , the basis of the "vocalic harmony." There the three "hard" vowels 
a o u, which are pronounced in withdrawing the tongue, correspond to the 
opposite "soft" vowels e o u, which are pronounced in stretching out the 
tongue. The fourth "soft" vowel i would have no corresponding "hard" 
vowel, if it were not the vowel i, which is formed in drawing back the 



55 

it are even found in fhe Dravidic languages of India. Although 
there are intermediate vowels between a and «', as there are 
between a and m, a and i, a and u^ all these languages have 
taken up only the one vowel (, because this is the most distinct 
vowel of the column and the only one they wanted for their 
parallelism of vowels. There is however at least one language 
known to me , which makes use also of a second vowel of the 
a — ( column, viz. the one which corresponds to o, as ?* cor- 
responds to u. The Ru manic or Wallachian language, as 
spoken north of the Danube, distinguishes a lower and a 
sharper vowel of the same kind, so as to fill up the place left 
open for it in our system. 

We should hke to keep for the sharper sound the Polish 
writing y. But this sign is already generally received for the 
semivowel of the palatals, and moreover would not be fit to 
form at the same time the basis for the deeper sound of the 
Rumanic language by taking a diacritical mark, because this 
mark ought to be added below where the space is occupied 
by the tail of the letter. No doubt, the basis of the sharper 
sound must be i, of the deeper sound e. They demand a 
common diacritical mark, diflPerent from those, which are al- 
ready in use for other purposes {i e e e). We regret not to 
find any symbol already adopted and therefore propose as a 
clear and convenient sign for handwriting to put the angle 
below i e. 

L- i- 

The vowel -pyramid of our system takes in consequence 
the following form, where the new vowels i e, may be put 
with the same propriety on the e—i side or on the o — w side. 





a 


a 




e G g 


or e g G 




i i u u 


i u i u 


Lips : 


broad broad round round 


broad round broad round 


Tongue : 


forward back forward back 


forward forward back back 



tongue as far as the palatal point in the middle of the hard roof of the 
palate. Now there is a regular correspondence between a o u i and e o u i. 



56 

In most of the European languages the ''soft" vowels of 
the middle have supplanted the "hard" ones. In the Rumania 
language the contrary has taken place, and in the Slavonic 
also no g or u has been received, but only «, as the following 
comparison shows. 



German. 


Rumanic. 


Polish. 




Russian. 


a 


a 


a 




a 


-^5.^ 9 


e e 


e - 




e,e - 


i u u 


i i u 


i i 


u 


i i u 



In the languages however of the Turks and Jakuts the pa- 
rallelism of the "vowel -harmony" has called forth the two 
forms between i and u^ viz. i and u. The deeper sound e has 
not been received; it would have been the most perfect cor- 
responding "hard" vowel to the "soft" one e. But it has 
been in this respect supplanted by its nearest neighbour «, 
which in reality is neither "hard" nor „soft", or both together. 
The parallelism became (a) 

hard: a o u i . , . ,, e o u i 

mstead or ^ ': 

soft: e u i e o u i 

or according to our pyramidal arrangement the Turkish and 

Yakutic vowels are 



instead of 



It would be interesting to know, if there is no cognate lan- 
guage, where this last form of vowel harmony has been de- 
veloped. 

Similar, but not to be confounded, is another formation of 
vowels which one might call Guttural isation. In no lan- 
guage, as far as J know, this formation has been independently 
organized as a peculiar part of the vowel system. But it 
has got a secondary influence in the Semitic languages, espe- 
cially in the Arabic. ^ 




57 

In forming the z, the middle tongue is lifted up to the palatal 
point in the middle of the hard roof of the palate; from this point 
forward it slopes down almost perpendicularly so as to leave 
a cavity between this point and the teeth. We may however 
also pronounce an i in lifting up the tongue only to the deeper 
guttural point near the velum palati, and in pressing down 
the whole middle part of the tongue so as to form a cavity 
between the concave and lengthened tongue and the roof of 
the mouth. This position of the tongue is very different from 
the shortened shape of it in forming the i. The tone of the 
vowel becomes generally somewhat deeper then the tone of 
the ordinary i. The change of formation and sounding is less 
in the other vowels and almost none in uttering the o, be- 
cause also the ordinary pronunciation of this vowel is formed 
at the deeper guttural point. Again the vowel a, which is 
formed beyond the guttural point in the larynx itself, can not 
be pronounced purely with the same guttural motion of the 
tongue ; it approaches perceptibly in its pronunciation to the o. 

In the Arabic language this "gutturalisation" of the vowels 
is distinctly heard after and in consequence of, certain con- 
sonants. The Arabic Orthoepists call this pronunciation the 
"thick" or "fat" one, the modern Grammarians use to call 
it the "emphatic" pronunciation. It is very naturally con- 
nected with the deep guttural consonants, which are with pre- 
dilection developed in all the Semitic languages, and besides 
with the four linguals, viz. R ^ 9.-) X ^ •) ^KV ^ ^ ^5 sometimes 
also with I and r; it is not connected, and could not be, with 
' and A, which are formed behind the deep guttural point in 
the larynx, nor with k, which, as well as /c s y and all the 
rest, is pronounced before the same deep guttural point. But 
it strikes us as a peculiarity of the Semitic languages, that 
this gutturalisation of thfi vowels takes place after the four 
letters d(t) d s z^ which are called by the Arabs, for this very 
reason, the "closed" letters, meaning the cavity-letters, and 

E 



58 

by the modern Linguists conventionally, though very improperly, 
the "lingual" letters. They are principally distinguished from 
the dental letters d d s z hj the circumstance that in pro- 
nouncing them with the forepart of the tongue, the throat is 
contemporaneously narrowed at the deep guttural point, as if 
one of these gutturals was to be uttered. This movement of 
the throat not only causes a somewhat diflferent position of 
the forepart of the tongue from the dental position, but it 
imparts to them also the thick emphatic sound, which they 
transmit to the following vowels in gutturalisiug them. In 
the same way also I and r may be pronounced (as well as n, 
although it is not mentioned) , if they are preceded by a lin- 
gual consonant without an intervening vowel. In the word 

*JUf Allah the I after a and u is always and by law of the 
orthoepists pronounced emphatically. It is in this case no 
other letter then the Slavonic "hard" I, the Polish J, which 
in consequence is to be written in our system I. 

It must be granted that the " thick " pronunciation of the 
vowels in the Semitic languages proceeds really from the con- 
sonants and has therefore no linguistic value in itself, because 
this vocalic tone appears exclusively after the said consonants 
which, on their part, keep their peculiar pronunciation even 
if they close a word or are followed immediately by another 
consonant. It is evident therefore that we have also in our 
transcription, as in the indigenous writing, not to express the 
gutturalisation, either in the vowels, or in the guttural con- 
sonants, but only in the lingual consonants d(t) S § z and in 
the Slavonic l.~\ 

Finally, the clear vowels are further capable of a peculiar 
alteration, that of nasalisation. This is produced not by closing 
nor even by narrowing the canal of the mouth , but by simul- 
taneously opening the canal of the nose. There is no conso- 
nantal element brought into play (although the nasalisation is 
mostly caused by the dropping of a nasal consonant), but it 



59 

is an alteration entirely within the vowel. As such it has been 
rightly understood by the Indian Grammarians, who express 
the nasalisation (anusvara) by a vowel -like sign, namely, by 
placing a dot over the letter. For the European alphabet, we 
choose the sign ^ placed over the vowel ^, as the dot would 
be inconvenient in the case of the 2, and write — 
a, ^, r, 0, il^ 0, u'^ I, e etc. 

The length of vowels is not expressed by the Greek sign \ 
but by the line used in Latin prosody, which requires less 
space, and is more easily combined with the accent a, a, #, 
and so on. The shortness, if required to be specially ex- 
pressed, is likewise, as in prosody, marked by ", a, e, 2, etc. 

A complete and accurate theory of transcription would re- 
quire a distinction of diphthongs^ as such, since two vowels 
united by accent into one syllable are pronounced otherwise 
than when placed unconnectedly by the side of each other, 
and forming ttco syllables ; the German word Mai having a dif- 
ferend sound from that of the Italian mai. Where it is necesary, 
the ordinary mark of diaeresis may be imployed to indicate 
the separation, as mai. Practice, however, seems in most 
languages not to require any distinction. 



B. The System of Consonants. 

On the Division of Cojisonants. 

The Consonants may be divided on different principles. Two 
principles of division, however, are prevalent, and will therefore 
be here adopted: although the exact place of every sound in 
the physiological system can result only from a minute inquiry 
into all its qualities. 

^ The same mark has occasionally been employed by Burnouf in his Com- 
m'entaire snr le Yagna (p. cxxm, p. xl, tableau). 

E2 



60 

The first and most important division is that determined by 
the place in the mouth where the sounds are formed. The breath 
which forms the sounds issues from the larynx into the mouth, 
and is here modified in a manifold manner, until it passes the 
outward gate of the lips. Thus the breath on its way can be 
stopped in various places either by the lips or by the tongue. 
We are accustomed in our languages, like the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, to distinguish three such stoppings, and thus to divide 
the consonants into three classes, gutturals^ dentals^ and labials^ 
according as they are formed in the throat, at the teeth, or 
with the lips. 

There is another essential difierence in the pronunciation, in 
as far as either the mouth at the above-mentioned places is 
completely closed and reopened, or the passage of the breath 
is only narrowed without its stream being entirely interrupted 
by closing the organs. The consonants formed by the first 
process we call explosive or divisible (dividuae)^ because the 
moment of contact divides the sound into two parts, ^ the others 
fricative^ from their sound being determined by friction, or con- 
tinuous (continuae) because this friction is not interrupted by any 

^ It will, on examination, soon appear that we often pronounce only half 
of a consonant, as, for instance, in all cases in which a nasal consonant meets 
another explosive letter of the same local class. The full pronunciation of 
an explosive letter requires the closing and opening of the organ. In anda 
we close the mouth with n and open it with d, the reverse in adna, pro- 
nouncing thus only half the n and half the d, whilst in ana and ada we pro- 
nounce the whole of n and the whole of d respectively; the same in ampa 
and ahka^ and so on. It is a decided mistake, to reckon m and n among 
the consonanfes continuae; for in m and n it is only the vowel-element in- 
herent in the first half, which may be continued at pleasure, whilst in all 
the continuous consonants it is the consonantal element (the friction) which 
must be continued, as in f,v>, s, z. When in a final m we do not reopen 
the mouth, we pronounce only half an m, not a whole one. The complete 
consonant is best perceived when placed between two vowels. It is evident 
that in ama closing and opening are as necessary to the completeness of m, 
as in aba to that of 6. This has been correctly understood by the Indian 
grammarians. 



61 



closiDg of the organs. The sounds r and I participate of both 
qualities, being continuous^ and at the same time formed by a 
contact, which is vibrating in r, and partial in I. 

We are thus enabled to give the following synopsis of the 
most generally known simple consonantal sounds. 



The Simple Consonants in the European Alphabets. 



Guttu- 
rales 



Denta- 
les 

Labia- 
les 



explosivae 

or 

dividuae. 

fort. len. nasaL 



). 



m 



fricativae or continuae. 



fortie. lenis. 

Ger. ch^h Mod. Gr. y 



semivoc, 
Ger.y 



{Ex\g\ sh Fr. j 

.sharp S Fr. Z 

iEngi.^^(-in) Engl. fA(-ine) 

/ Engl. V Engl. 2^ 



ancipites. 



gutt. r 



dent, r I 



Upon ivJiat Principles are these Sounds to he i^endered 
in a General Alphabet. 

Of these sounds only 11, viz. ^, h, t, fZ, n, r^ I, p, h, m, /, 
have one and the same universally acknowledged value in the 
European alphabets, putting aside a few minor differences. The 
others require to be specially defined. Even among these the 
simple signs, ^, s, 0, r, and iv are already so generally intro- 
duced into linguistic books in the value indicated above, that 
we may safely use them without further discussion. 

We meet with some difficulty, however, with respect to the 
sounds of the German ng ^ ch^ and y, the French j and ch (or 
Enghsh sh)^ the English sharp and soft tJi, the Modern Greek y^ 
and the guttural r. These nine sounds have been represented 
in linguistic books by various means. 

The inconvenience of the common way of writing them will 
be evident, when we refer to the principles upon which every 



62 

alphabet, aiming at general application, must be grounded, and 
which are essentially as follows: — 

I. Every simple sound ought to he represented hy a single sign. 
This excludes the combinations w^, ch^ tli. 

II. Different sounds are not to he expressed hy one and the same 
sign; contrary to which principle ch, /, th have been each used 
with a double value. 

III. Explosive letters are not to he used to express fricative 
sounds^ and vice versa. On the contrary, the simple characters 
(bases) must form a separate series in each of the two great 
divisions; if not, inextricable confusion will inevitably arise. 

If, then, we look for signs which can be applied to the 
sounds above indicated, so as not to violate these most impor- 
tant principles, we shall find the choice of letters more cir- 
cumscribed than it would at first appear. 

German ng. 
In German and in English (as for instance. Germ, enge., Engl. 
singing) ng expresses the guttural n ^, for which linguistic use 
has very generally adopted n^ particularly in transcribing the 
Sanskrit. It is evident that n must remain the basis, and there 
is no reason for introducing any fresh diacritical sign. 

Guttural T. 
The guttural r differs from the usual dental r, in as much 
as the velum palati is put in vibration instead of the tip of the 
tongue. It is often thus pronounced in difi'erent dialects of the 
German, French, and other languages. The point over the 
letter marking already the guttural pronunciation of ?i, no 
other diacritical sign will be chosen for the same purpose in r. 
We write it, therefore, r. 



* In most other languages, as in Sanskrit, it appears only before other gut- 
turals; Indian scholars, therefore, do not generally distinguish it from the 
dental n. 



63 

German j. 
The German j is the semi -vowel which, in English (^ear, 
7/es), and sometimes also in French (Ma?/ence, Bai/onne), is 
expressed by y. Following these precedents and the use ge- 
nerally adopted in linguistic books , we likewise express it by y. 

German ch. 

The German ch in laclien is known to be xhe fricative sound, 
which arises from the throat not being closed at the guttural 
point (which would give ^), but only narrowed, so that the 
strong and continuous breath produces a friction, such as is 
heard at the teeth in 5, and at the lips in /. The English, 
French, and Itahans, do not know the sound at all; in the 
Spanish language it is marked by j or x. In the Semitic lan- 
guages (Hebrew n, Arabic -;-) it is very frequent. Of Euro- 
pean alphabets only the Spanish and the. Greek have a single 
letter for this simple sound. The Latin language did not know 
the sound, and therefore did not express it. The signs hitherto 
used by Hnguistic scholars, ch^ kh^ qli^ k^ cc^ are in opposition 
to the inviolable principle that fricative sounds must not be 
represented by explosive bases, such as c, ^, q (above No. III.), 
or are altogether improper, like x. The nearest applicable fri- 
cative basis would be h. But it will appear from the sequel 
that this sign would be used for six different sounds, if we 
do not confine it strictly to its proper meaning. The difficulty 
of finding an appropriate sign for this sound is therefore great, 
and has long been felt. We possess one, however, in a Euro- 
pean alphabet, namely, the Greek, which is almost as gene- 
rally known as the Latin. From this it has been adopted into 
the Russian alphabet; and the Spanish x owes its pronuncia- 
tion, probably, rather to the Greek ;i;, than to the Latin x. 
The want of a new sign, which of course could not be sup- 
plied from an Oriental alphabet, had already caused Volney 
to propose the Greek ^ in his alphabet of 1795, and, after the 



64 

mistaken experiment of substituting S:, to reproduce it in his 
last alphabet of 1818. The same sign is used by Joli. Midler\ 
Rapp^, Bunsen^ ^ and others. 

We therefore consider it not only as an essential advantage, 
but even as the only means of solving all difficulties, to follow 
these precedents, and to receive the Greek j[ as the represen- 
tative of this sound in the general alphabet. Of the soft sound, 
which corresponds with the strong, we shall have to speak below. 

English sh, French ch, German sch. 

For the rushing sound of the English sh we should not hesi- 
tate to propose a new basis, and to borrow it, if necessary, 
from the Greek alphabet, if any such existed. But neither 
the Greeks nor the Romans had this sound; and we must 
avoid recurring to the Oriental, or even the Russian alphabet, 
as few persons could be expected to follow us so far. Our 
only resource, therefore, is to content ourselves with the near- 
est basis 5, and to qualify this by a diacritical mark. This 
has been done, moreover, by all those that sought a single 
sign for this simple sound, except by Volney, who first pro- 
posed a newly invented sign ^, and afterwards preferred /*, 
viz. the inverted j. Some used s or s. More generally s has 
been adopted, from the precedent of Bopp, who has used it 
since 18B3. Others have preserved the combination sh, which 
not only offends against the simplicity of the sound, but has 
produced also the incorrect impression , that the rushing sound 
implied a stronger breath than the common s. We should 
adopt Bopp's s% on account of the authority of the precedent 
and its reception by his school, if it were not open to serious 
objections. The spiritus asper is, like A, a sign of aspiration, 
and from the analogy of A', A;, g etc. (see below), one ought to 

* Handbucli der Physiologie , vol. n. (1837), pp. 237, 238. 

^ Physiologie der Sprache, p. 65. 

^ Aegyptens Stelle in- der Weltgeschichte, vol. i. 



65 

suppose an augmentation of the breathing of the s. This is 
not the case. It would be, therefore, introducing a new meaning 
of the spiritus asper, used only in this single case. Nor can 
we adopt s, since the accent indicates the palatal series (see 
below) , and the single precedent of s used by Schleiermacher 
has hitherto found no imitation. 

We propose to write s^ using a sign which we find already 
in constant and general use in the Serbian and modern Bohe- 
mian alphabets. 

French j. 

This letter is the soft and vocalised sound, which corresponds 
to the strong French cli (German sch)^ and stands exactly in 
the same relation to it as the French z to the strong s. Volney 
retained the French j ^ which w^e cannot use any more than 
rA, which has been introduced by others. There can be no 
doubt, however, that the parallelism with our s for French ch 
requires a soft z for French j. Following the same analogy, 
the Serbians likewise write z. 

English strong th. 

The English th'^ offers exactly the same difficulties as the 
German ch. It is a littera fricativa or continua.^ and must not, 
therefore, have the explosive letter ^, for its basis. The only 
Latin character of the fricative division, which might be ap- 
plied to it, is 5, and, for the soft sound, z.* Both, however, 
have been already applied each to two uses, and would besides 
have the disadvantage of favouring the tendency, common to 
most European nations, to substitute the usual dental s for the 
peculiar lisping sound. In this case, also, it will soon (when 
use shall have overcome the first -felt apprehension) be ac- 



^ The same lisping sound exists in the Arabic and many other languages, 
including several African tongues. 



66 

knowledged as an advantage, if, instead of 5 with a diacritical 
sign, we adopt the universally known Greek character ^ as a 
new and original basis. Nor is it without precedent, ^ having 
been used for this purpose by many, among whom we may 
again mention Volney (1795) and Fleischer (1831). 

The soft English th^ and the Modern Greek y. 

The sound of the soft English th (thine ^ thou) appears also 
in the Danish d and in the modern Greek d\ the soft guttural 
corresponding to the strong German ch presents itself in the 
modern Greek y. It cannot be denied that it will be a real 
advantage if we find other bases for these soft sounds than 
^ and ^, as differs from s, z from 5, v from /. Yielding to 
this conviction we mark the corresponding soft sounds simi- 
larly by the Greek letters y and d^ ^ the more so as we have 
already before us the weighty precedent of Fleischer (1831). 
We do not undervalue the evident and serious difficulty, that 
by the reception of some Greek characters, the generally required 
confinement to the Roman alphabet suffers an exception; and 
we foresee that many who do not sufficiently appreciate the 
great importance of the organic laws of the alphabet , may be 
shocked at first. A further consideration will, however, soon 
make it evident, that the peculiar poverty of the Latin lan- 
guage in fricative sounds and letters, and the general tendency 
of all languages to transform the explosive into fricative sounds^, 
, have rendered the disproportion between the two great divi- 
! sions of sounds, with respect to their graphic representation, 
already so great that an essential and lasting remedy is ab^o-^ 

1 There can be no doubt, that neither did / and ^ originally signify the 
fricative sounds substituted in a later time, but the aspirates Mh and th. The 
epoch of the altered pronunciation of /, ^9^, and (/■, cannot be accurately de- 
fined, but was probably contemporaneous with the alteration of y and J, 
whilst /? seems to have approached latin v in still earlier times. 

^ Instances of this tendency are generally known from the Romanic lan- 
guages. See also below, where the Palatals are considered. 



67 



lute ly required.^ There are, indeed, eight bases for the above 
stated nine explosive sounds, and only six for the twelve fri- 
cative sounds. An augmentation of the latter by introducing 
the Greek signs j, y, ^ and J, is consequently almost unavoi- 
dable; and their absolute necessity will soon be still more 
evident when we come to consider the Asiatic sounds in ad- 
dition to the European. 

We are thus enabled to give the following tableau of the 
European sounds; 



Alphabet of the European Consonantal System. 



Gutturales 



Dentales 



Labiales 



explositxB or dividuoe. 

fortis. Icnis. nasalis. 

k g n 



d 



V 



m 



fricatives or continuoe. 

fortis. lenis. semivoc. 

I h r y 

■ s 
s 

f V w 



ancipites. 



r I 



Enlargement of the Alphabet by the Addition of the Foreign Sounds 
of Oriental Languages. 
The Asiatic languages, especially the Indian and the Arabic, 
possess, besides the sounds hitherto considered, others, which 
hardly exist at all in European languages, or at least are only 
fully developed in Asiatic languages, and, therefore, can only 
find their proper position in a more comprehensive system. In- 
stead of the three European classes, we must distinguish seven, 
which we shall now consider separately. 

I. The Faucal Class. 
h 
We are accustomed to reckon h among the gutturals. It is 



68 

easily observed, however, that we pronounce this sound behind 
the guttural point, immediately at the larynx. When pronoun- 
ced so softly as to be vocalised, ^. e. so as to imply a vowel 
sound produced in the larynx (as'with z^ v, J, £) the friction 
ceases to be audible, and only the vowel element is heard. 
This vocalised consonantal breathing, is, therefore, not pecu- 
liarly marked in any language, h belongs, therefore, to the 
unvocalised strong fricatives. 

Arabic ^, Hebrew i\, Sanskrit ^^ Greek spiritus lenis. 
By closing the throat and then opening it to pronounce a vowel, 
we produce the slight explosive sound which in the Eastern 
languages is marked separately, but not in the European, except 
in the Greek. We perceive it distinctly between two vowels 
which following each other are pronounced separately, as in 
the Italian sara 'a casa^ the English go 'over^ the German See- 
'adler^; or even after consonants when trying to distinguish, 
in German, mein 'Eid (my oath) from Meineid (perjury), or 
Fisch-'art (fish species) from Fischart (a name), &c. We indi- 
cate this sound, when necessary, by the mark \ like the Greeks. 

Arabic 9, lain. 
The slight sound just described can be pronounced hard by a 
stronger explosion almost at the same point of the throat. Thus 
arises the sound which the Arabs write p.^ We find it expressed 
by scholars generally by placing a diacritical sign over the fol- 
lowing vowel, a, a, «', a, d] sometimes below, a. This method 
would suppose, from the analogy of all systems of writing, that 
the ^ were only an indication of a change in the vowel. It is, 
however, a full consonant, preceding the vowel. We indicate 

* See on the accurate pronunciation of this and the other Arabic sounds 
my dissertation: Ueber die Aussprache und die Umschrift der Arabischen 
Laute^ in the Transact, .of the R. Acad, of Berlin. 1861. 



69 

it, therefore, with regard to its affinity to the soft sound, by 
doubling the spiritus lenis, /. 

Arabic ^, Ka. 

The fricative sound corresponding to / is not the coromon 7i, 
but a stronger aspiration, which requires a greater contraction 
of the faucal point, and is distinguished by the Arabs from 
the simple h. It has, therefore, been often indicated by hh. 
We write K and have a precedent in the writings of Fleischer 
(1831), Ewald (1831), VuUers (1841). 

The absence of any nasal sound in the faucal series is ne- 
cessitated by the physiological position of the faucal point, the 
contraction of which closes at the same time the canal of the nose. 

The faucal series is confined, therefore, to the four following 
sounds, thus represented; I ^ li h. 

II. The Guttural Class. 

As we have already excluded the li from this class, on account 
of its being pronounced behind the proper guttural point, we 
must, to be accurate, exclude the y also, and put it in the 
next following class, this sound being formed in the mouth 
before the guttural point. 

Again we are obliged to comprise a sound peculiar to the 
Semitic languages, viz. 

The Arabic o and Hebrew p, qaf or ^o/, 
which is formed at the posterior soft part of the palate, although 
this class has its place of formation a little more forward, at 
the point where the velum palati^ joins the hard palate. We 
indicate this sound by the sign which the Greeks and Romans 
substituted for it, although it cannot be proved that they pi\)- 
nounced it exactly in the same manner, viz. q. 

We obtain by this addition the following complete guttural 
series : k q c/; n; j ^; r. 



70 



111. The Palatal Class. 

In passing from the guttural to the dental point, another 
point may be distinguished, and has been fixed by several 
languages, namely, the palatal point which is situated almost 
in the middle or on the highest point of the hard palate, and 
occasionally extends to the gum of the upper teeth. We dis- 
tinguish this class of letters from the Gutturals by a stroke 
put over them. A ^ or ^', pronounced at this place by pressing 
the broad middle part of the tongue on the palate, will be 
easily distinguished from the deep gutturals q^ h^ ^^9' 

In most languages k and ^, before the vowels e, *, o, u, 
approach th-e palatal pronunciation, whilst before a, o, u they 
remain more guttural, owing to the formation of these vowels. 
A palatal U is as diflPerent from the guttural k as the German 
ch in ^c?A, which we write ^, from the ch in ach or Buck, or 
as the common German ch in Milch (MiljJ from the Swiss ch 
(our guttural j) in the same word. 

With regard to the Sibilants, no simple s can be pro- 
nounced at the palatal point The letter s is formed by the 
simple friction of the breath between the upper and lower 
teeth and is in consequence always dental. The rushing sound 
of the English sh or the German sch is formed in the hollow 
space left between the teeth and the palatal point, and may 
thus be regarded both as a dental and as a palatal sound. 

Several languages distinguish two rushing sounds. If the 
tongue is drawn back in itself and a considerable hollow space 
is left between the middle of the palate and the teeth, a full 
rushing sound is heard , which may still be increased by putting 
forward the lips. This is the common Enghsh, German and 
French sound, which we write s. If the tongue in the con- 
trary is stretched out as in pronouncing the other palatals, 
especially the j of the German ich^ and only the tip of the 
tongue is withdrawn or turned down from the teeth so as to 



71 

extend the cavity behind them only to the upper limit of the 
gum, the rushing sound becomes thinner and more like the j 
or the s. English and French often pronounce it when trying 
to utter the German palatal ch = j. We write it / as a 
principally palatal variety of s. Both sounds, s and /, are 
distinguished in the Polish language, where they are written 
sz (= s) and s (= s). 

The latter sound / is actually given in India to the Deva- 
nagari "^f, according to the description of the most careful ob- 
servers, and differs decidedly from the "^', which is a cerebral 
s and now resembles more our full common s^ as far as the 
original cerebral position of the tongue is no longer thoroughly 
retained. ^ 

The palatal sounds have, as their physiological formation will 
explain, the peculiarity of easily assuming a shade of y, which 
appears most distinctly in the palatal n and tJ This slight 
shade which at first accompanies the palatal sound so closely 
that a fine ear perceives it as well before as after the moment 

^ There are learned Indian scholars who assert that the letters ^ 
and "^ have actually quite the same pronunciation and I was induced by 
them for a moment, to change my opinion when I wrote the line in the 
Introduction p. 8. But I have since convinced myself that this was only a 
mistake of the English or German ear, which does not know the marked 
difference between s, s and s. Colebrooke, Wilkins, Caxey and others 
were perfectly right in making the distinction. 

2 If, for instance, we pronounce the n and I in ano , fule, so as to press 
the broad middle of the tongue upon the high middle part of the hard palate, 
we shall no longer hear the French words anneau, and foule, but something 
very like agneau and fouille, with this difference only, that in the modern 
French pronunciation the tongue is not raised quite up to the palate, but only 
brought near it, so that the sound is more and more dissolved in y, ayeau, 
fouye. To t and d also, in many languages, a slight sound of ^ is added, without 
producing the impression of a compound letl^er. If in certain languages it 
should appear convenient not to designate this secondary sound as a complete 
consonant, it would be very appropriate to introduce also for the sounds ty dy 
the palatal line, and to write t' and d\ as y is indeed of a palatal nature^ 
and communicates the same to the I and d. 



|, 72 



of closing the organ in uttering the explosive sounds, increases 
afterwards easily, so as to become independent, and to grow 
into a full subsequent ?/, next into a j^, finally into a s or /. 
Thus arises a series of compound sounds, which, from the 
palatal ^', through ky, ty , is^ ti^ frequently pass into ts and 
even into a simple 5% /, or s. 

Such a transformation of former gutturals into sibilant dentals 
has occurred in many languages. The Greek xollov, i. e. koilon^ 
became in the Latin language coelum^ i. e. kolum^ and is sounded 
in the modern Italian cielo^ i. e. tselo; the Latin caseus^ Ger- 
man Kdse^ has become, in English, cheese, i. e. tsiz; the Hebrew 
gamal (the camel), and the Arabic gemel^ became gyemel or 
dyemel^ afterwards dzemel, at last even zemel. Such transitions 
in the history of languages never take place suddenly, but always 
gradually. It is a very common phenomenon that the explo- 
sive letters first produce the corresponding fricative sounds be- 
hind them, and afterwards pass entirely into them, and that 
at the same time the gutturals advance constantly towards the 
anterior part of the mouth. 

The same transition of sounds has taken place in the Indian 
languages, compared with the old Sanskrit. 

There the first two sounds of the Palatal class are pro- 
nounced by the natives, according to all descriptions, like the 
English cli and j in choice and join^ or like the Italian c and g 
in cima and giro. These English and Italian sounds are, as no 
one that hears or pronounces them will doubt, compound 
sounds, beginning with the explosives t and c?, and terminating 
with the fricatives s and z or /and z. But in the sacred Devana- 
gari writing of the Indians, none but simple sounds were repre- 
sented by single signs; and their language itself leaves not the 
least doubt that the sounds ^ and ^ were really simple, not 
compound sounds. This is proved, for instance, by their not 
rendering the preceding syllable long, and by the possibility 



73 

of doubling them.^ These sounds were consequently pronounced 
originally in another manner than now, viz. as simple sounds. 
Even though we were not now able to define these sounds 
more accurately, we ought undoubtedly to indicate them in 
old Sanskrit by a peculiar sign. For this purpose, Bopp and 
his school have introduced the mark ' over the letter, the same, 
which we have proposed in consequence of this important pre- 
cedence. Of the peculiar case , when in a foreign alphabet 
these sounds are represented as simple from their being ori- 
ginally such, whilst they are now pronounced as compound, 
we have treated in the Introduction. 

The series of palatal and palato - dental sounds will therefore 
be as follows: 

U g n; j /; s z; s z; y; t. 

It is to be observed only that y and the semivowel y are 
so near each other that the f will hardly appear in any lan- 
guage as a distinct sound by the side of y. It is self-evident 
that 2/ needs not assume the palatal mark, as there is no cor- 
responding guttural sound. 

IV". The cerebral 2 Class. 

This class, almost exclusively peculiar to the Indian, and 
amongst them originally to the Dravidian, languages, is for- 
med by bringing the tip of the tongue backwards and upwards 
to the neighbourhood of the palatal point, so as to produce 
there the explosion or friction. To our ear, these sounds are 

* It is eyidont that in no language a compound sound can be doubled. If, 
resolving the English riches into its component sounds ritses, one intended to 
double this sound, one could not write ric/tches, i. e. ritstses (for that would 
sound as in which child), but would only repeat the first element and write 
ritches, i. e. rittses. 

2 Cerebral was the original English denomination, which arose indeed from 
a false translation of the Indian name miirdd'anya, i. e. letters of the doine 
of the palate, but has not yet been supplied by a more appropriate one. 

F 



74 

nearest to the dentals. We retain for them also the diacri- 
tical sign introduced by Bopp and his school, viz. the dot 
under the letter, and write this Indian series 

t d n; s; r L 

V. The Lingual or gutturo- dental Class 

belongs as exclusively to the Arabic and cognate languages. 
In their formation, a dental and a guttural movement of the 
tongue are combined.^ With respect to the former, the breadth 
of the tongue either touches or approaches the whole anterior 
space of the hard palate as far as the teeth, its tip being 
rather turned below. It is consequently entirely different from 
the Indian cerebrals^ although these, too, are frequently called 
Unguals, It appears, therefore, suitable to confine this latter 
denomination to the Arabic sounds, and to retain the former 
for the Indian, if it would not be preferable to substitute the 
name o^ gutturo -dentals. 

The graphic representation hitherto adopted by Robinson, 
Caspari, Davids, and others, is a dot under the dentals, like 
that of the cerebrals. We have chosen instead of the dot, after 
the precedent of Volney, in contradistinction to the cerebral 
formation, a small line, which is little different from the dot 
hitherto used. The Arabs have developed only four letters 
of this class, namely: d(t) d s z. 

VI. The Dental Class 
exists complete in the European languages, and has been speci- 
fied above. 

The essential distinction of the two fricative formations s and 
^, from the guttural and palatal j and jf^, consists in the friction 
of the breath being formed and heard exclusively at the teeth. 

^ See above p. 57. and below the notes to the Arabic Alphabet. 



75 

"When the tip of the tongue is placed at the very point of the 
friction, ^ is pronounced ; if it is laid against the lower teeth, 
whilst the upper side of the tongue is brought back behind the 
upper teeth, we have s. When the tongue recedes still farther, 
so that behind the upper and lower teeth a greater hollow space 
remains, the interior limit of which extents as far as the ^a- 
/a^aZ point, this enlarged resounding space produces the palato- 
dental sounds / and 6^, of which we have already spoken 
above. We might as well reckon the 6^ and /, z and z amongst 
the dentals as we hear their principal friction at the teeth. 
We will seen however in the second part several alphabets, 
where it seems more convenient to place these sounds with the 
palatals. The Indian cerebral s" receives from the peculiar flexion 
of the tongue, which produces a double cavity in the mouth, 
a still different expression, indicated by the cerebral dot below. 
The dental series remains, therefore, 

t d n; s z; ^ d; r I. 

VII. The Labial Class 

is also known from European languages, and has been mentioned 
above, p b m; f v; iv. 

We ought perhaps to notice here the particular pronun- 
ciation of ^v in middle Germany, where this letter is no labio- 
dental^ formed between the lower lip and the upper teeth, as 
V in England, France, Northern Germany, India, etc., nor the 
semivowel w of the English, Arabic and many other languages, 
but a pure labial sound, formed between the upper and lower 
lip without any ^^ -position of the lips and tongue and without 
any concurrence of the teeth. This is however a sound which 1 
never heard of in any language except the provincial German 
dialects, and for this reason it needs hardly a peculiar de- 
signation in our alphabet, where, if wanted, it might be written ^v. 

If we now comprise the seven classes in a general tableau, 
we obtain the following synopsis : 

F2 



/ 



76 



The Consonants of the General Alphabet. 





explosivw or dividuce. 


fricativte or continuce. 


ancipites. 




fortes. lenes. nasales. 


fortes. lenes. semivoc. 




I. Faucales. 


/ 


K h 




II. Gutturales, 


k g n 


X r 


r 


III. Palatales. 


U g n 


X, s, i /, z, z y 


t 


IV. Cerehrales. 

(Tndicae) 

y. Linguales. 

(Arabicae) 

VI. Dentales, 


t d n 

d(t) 
t d n 


V V 

s, ^^ z, d 


r I 

r I 


VII. Lahiales, 


p b m 


f V w 





Examples of Pronunciation. 
We follow here the vertical anci not the horizontal order, 
because we thereby keep together all the letters, which in 
the different classes have the same bases. 

engl. cunning, hut. 
ger. Konig, fr. feu. 
~i fr. fumes, ger. Gijiie, 
fr. hut., ger. Gluck. 
engl. mine, ger. Kaiser. 
engl. house ^ ger. Haus. 
ger. Hduser^ heute. 
span, reina. 
engl. join. 
fr. an, en. 
fr. examen., Inde. 
fr. on. 
fr. WW. 

engl. nation .f ger. Verstand. 
sanskr. "W. 



Vowels. 

a engl. father , fr. aw^. 
« ger. Mann^ ital. W/o. 
;e fr. mere, ger. ^Bar. 
/ engl. A^ftcZ, ger. fett. 
e engl. caw^, ^^^m, fr. donne. 

engl. 56^, fr. lit. 

engl. sw, fr. y?^. 

engl. all, ital. p^rd. 

engl. hot, not. 

engl. :^^o, fr. faux, 
u engl. rwZ^, fr. nous, 
ii engl. /oo^, fr. ours. 
§ fr. heurre, coeur. > 



o 

.0 

?^ 

ai 

au 

au 

ei 

oi 

a 

e. 



g 
e 

o 



77 



/ sanskr. "^. 

z chin, mandar. t8Z. 

o o 

Consonants. 

A. Explosive, cr. Fortes. 
/ arab. p Qdin). 

k engl. cool, fr. cause. 

H old sanskr. "^. [see above p. 72.] 

c modern sanskr. ^, engl. ch. 

t sanskr. Z. 

t engl. ^oiow, fr. i^ow. 

p engl. j9*w^, fr. ^^w. 

b. Lenes. 
arab. ^, hebr. j^, gr. spir. len. '. 
q arab. o (^<^. 
g engl. ^o^^^, fr. gauche, 
g old sanskr. ^. 
/ modern sanskr. ^5 engl. j. 
d sanskr. ^. 
d(t) arab. ^ (see below). 
d engl. dear, 
h engl. &?/. 

c. Nasal es. 
n engl. singing, ger. ^w^^. 
'/^ sanskr. "^f^ ital. gnudo.^ fr. 

w sanskr. ^. 
n engl. wo. 
m engl. me, 

B. Fricativab. rt. Fortes. 

R arab. ^ (7?a). 



h 


engl. hand. 


X 


ger. Buch^ ach; pol. chata. 


s 


engl. show, fr. chat, ger. schon. 


X 


ger. ich, recht. 


8 


old sanskr. "Cf. 


i 


mod. ind. 'ST, pol. swit. 


§ 


arab. l>^ fsacf). 


s 


engl. sense ^ fr. savoir. 


^ 


engl. z^Am, mod. gr. -^sog. 


f 


engl. ^w^. 




b. Lenes. 


r 


arab. 5 (ydin). 


rJ 


fr. jeune, pol. hazant. 


r 


mod. gr. yicpvQa. 


z 


pol. pozno. 


z 


fr. 0eZ^5 engl. 0^«/. 


d 


engl. i^Ay, mod. gr. dixpa. 


s 


arab. Ji? f^^J. 


z 


arab. o^^ f ^aj (see below). 




c. Semivocales. 


y 


engl. ?/6ar, fr. Bayonne., 




ger. >. 


w 


engl. we. 




C. LiQDIDAB. 


r 


germ, and fr. dialects. 


T 


sanskr. T. 


r 


engl. very.^ ital. rahhia. 


t 


ital. ^^^, fr. mouille. 


I 


sanskr. 35. 


I 


engl. low. 



78 

On the Aspirates and Consonantal Diphthongs. 

Aspirates are those explosive sounds which are pronounced with 
a simple but audible breath. This class has been most fully 
developed in the Sanskrit, where ih^ fortes as well as the lenes 
of all classes can be aspirated in this manner. In the ancient 
Greek only the fortes admitted of the aspiration, and these 
afterwards passed into the corresponding fricatives. The aspi- 
ration can only follow the explosion, not accompany it through- 
out, as it does the friction of the fricatives. Thus, a real 
composition takes place. ^ If, notwithstanding this, the aspirates 
are represented in the Sanskrit as single letters, this is to be 
explained by the circumstance, that the spiritus unites itself 
more closely with the explosive letters than any other conso- 
nant, and is of so little weight, that it does not make the pre- 
ceding syllable long, being, properly speaking, no more than 
an increase of the breath necessarily inherent in every conso- 
nant. It is optional, therefore, either to regard the aspirates 
as single consonants, or as compositions with h. [We prefer 
now the latter. See above p. 11.] 

In regard to the doubling of consonants., it will readily be 
granted, that they ought not to be employed merely to show 
that the preceding vowel is short and accentuated, but only 
where the duplication (from the prolongation of the friction or 
of the moment of touching) is distinctly heard, or the double 
letter is justified etymologically, as originating in the assimilation 
of different consonants, or wherever nothing is intended, but a 
transcription of a foreign orthography, which makes use of 
double letters.^ 



^ The best linguistic proof is, that no aspirate can be doubled; -when a 
duplication is intended, the unaspirated sound is placed before the aspirate. 
From alia arises by reduplication not aHlia^ but aliJia. In Greek you write 
for the same reason tit{}i], Baxxoq, 2^an(fco. 

2 Every double consonant is pronounced with but one closing or narrowing 
of the organ and with the intention to unite the first half of the double 
consonant to the preceding syllable, the second to the following. 



7,/ 



On the Applicatmi of the General Alphabet to the Alphabet of 
particular Languages. 

It has been remarked above, that the general alphabet, when 
applied to particular languages, must be capable of simplifi- 
cation as well as of enlargement. All particular diacritical marks 
are unnecessary in those languages where none of the bases 
have a double value. We then write the simple base without 
a diacritical mark 6, o, s. Where two sounds belong to the 
same base, one only of the signs will often be wanted, espe- 
cially in the case of long and short vowels. 

If further essential differences should be shown, which are 
not yet represented in the general alphabet, and cannot be ex- 
pressed by a modification of the bases already adopted, nothing 
prevents the selection, or, if necessary, invention of other new 
diacritical signs, without deviating from the principles above 
developed. 

Among these latter cases we may reckon, for instance, the 
clicks of the southern most ^ African languages, which are formed, 
not by throwing out the breath, but by drawing it inward. 
We often produce the same clicks by the same movements of 
the tongue, but do not use them as articulate elements of speech. 

In the Hottentot language there are four clicks; in the Zulu 
and some other neighbouring languages to which they were 
transferred, only three. 

The first, which had been written hitherto q^ is made by 
pressing the tip of the tongue closely upon the middle palate and 
withdrawing it suddenly, and from the place of its formation 
is to be reckoned among the cerebrals. The second (found prin- 
cipally in the Hottentot, but, according to Boyce^, also in some 
words of the Kafir language) , arises , from placing the breadth 



^ Grammar of the Kaffir Language , p. 4. He writes it qc. I myself have 
heard it pronounced by Zuhi Kaffirs. 



80 

of the tongue in the palatal position, and withdrawing it with 
a suction. The third, generally written c^ is in the same 
manner dental^ as only the tip of the tongue smacks against 
the upper teeth and the gum above. The fourth is formed at the 
side of the tongue, by drawing in the air towards the middle 
of the mouth from the right or left side. It has been called 
lateral^ therefore, and generally rendered by x. 

The pronunciation of these sounds becomes difficult only 
when they are connected with other sounds. Whilst the an- 
terior part of the. tongue is smacking, the throat can open it- 
self for a g or n^ so that these latter sounds are pronounced 
almost at the same time with the click, or immediately after it.^ 

At the same time^ the choice of <?, g, and .v^ as signs of 
clicks, is inconvenient, since they are taken from the Euro- 
pean alphabets, in which they express well known sounds, not 
bearing any relation to the clicks. Essential to the latter is 
the peculiarity of stopping in part , and even drawing back 
the breath, which appears to be most easily expressed by a 
simple bar /. If we connect with this our common marks for 
the cerebral or the palatal , a peculiar notation is wanted only 
for the lateral, which is the strongest sound. We propose to 
express it by two bars //. As the gutturals evidently do not 
unite with the clicks into one sound 2, but form a compound 



1 Boyce distingiushes only two accompanying gutturals, which he writes 
g and n; Appleyard and Grout mention three, g and two nasals, n and ng 
(«). The author himself could only distinguish two gutturals, g and w, as 
connected with clicks by the Zulu Kafirs just mentioned, who in the be- 
ginning of 1854, sojourned for some time in Berlin. 

2 We cannot , therefore , assent to Grout , who , instead of the former no- 
tation proposes the following : 

q q q q 

c 6 c c 

X ■/' X X 

Grout, in the above-mentioned work p. 34. accepts our mode of writing 
the clicks, but places the three sounds which appear in connection with 



81 

sound, we may make them simply to follow, as with the diph- 
thongs. Thus we get the tableau: 

Palatals (qc) / — — 

Cerebrals (q) i ig in 

Dentals (c) i ig in 

Laterals (x) ii iig iin 



them, not after but before the click - letters and writes nl , gii, ngj etc. 
and the Rev. J. L. Dohne, Missionary to the American Board, C. J. M. in 
his Zulu Kafir Dictionary, Cape Town, 1857, p. xxxviii, expresses himself 
distinctly against our proposal to write the clicks before their accompanying 
letters. On the other hand Wallmann and Vollmer have put the clicks after 
these letters, in the before-mentioned works. All are agreed, we among the 
rest, that the two sounds, although perfectly different, are pronounced al- 
most simultaneously; and Dohne states, even in reference to the Nama and 
Kafir: "In the former the guttural sound begins after the tongue has 
clicked and continues with a peculiar and distinct force; but this is little 
observable in the Kafir." I believe that I have remarked the same thing, 
with regard to the g, in the pronunciation of the Kafir. As far as I am 
aware, no one asserts that g is heard before the click. And neither does 
the etymological reason advanced by Dohne — "that it was impossible that 
from the in before the root iela iinelo but (only) in/elo can be made" — 
prove anything in favour of pronouncing in or n/ , for equally little should we 
be justified in inferring from the fact that in the Sanskrit «5rf% ^^t'i "he 
licks" from f^'^ Uh and f^f ti, C must be pronounced not as th^ but 
as ht. It appears to us of little real importance •whether one writes ig or 
gi ^ as both sounds are uttered, as nearly as possible, simultaneously. It 
is however very desirable, that a majority should declare itself in favour of 
one or the other form, amongst linguists and Missionaries interested in 
th6 subject, to which majority the dissentient will then join themselves. 

Dr. Bleek (The Library of Sir George Grey, vol. I, pp. 6 and 172) men- 
tions a conference held in 1856 by the Rhenish Missionaries in South Africa, 
by which 2 of our 4 click signs, viz. / and // -were adopted, and the other 
two, viz. / and / were exchanged for -f and 4=. There would be no great 
objection to the alterations, should a majority declare distinctly in favour 
of them. Meanwhile, nothing advocating the Rhenish mode of writing, ex- 
cept Yollmer's book, has as yet come under my notice, while our signs 
have already been made use of by Wallmann and Grout. Here also it ap- 
pears more essential that a choice should be made, than "what the choice 
should be. The distinctive marks / and / are made according to the organic 



82 

The difficulty of transcription is greatest in those systems of 
writing which , originating in an earHer period of the language, 
and fully developed, have been retained unaltered, whilst the 
pronunciation has undergone a change, as also in those in which 
several reformations have left their traces. An instance of this 
kind has already been mentioned in speaking of the Sanskrit 
palatals. The differences of European orthography have mostly 
arisen from similar circumstances. Some such difficulties, how- 
ever, are presented by almost all existing alphabets which are 
not of modern formation. As the object of a standard tran- 
scription is to avoid, as much as possible, all such incongruity 
of sound and sign, no other course remains open in such cases 
than to fix upon a distinct period of the language in question, 
and to adapt its transcription to the different purposes of ren- 
dering, either the actual pronunciation, or the ancient one which 
had been expressed by the alphabet, and which may be deduced 
from it by linguistic researches. The difference is generally 
found to be greater in the vowels than in the consonants, the 
former being, in all languages, the more changeable element. 

The Arabs write only three vowels, but pronounce these three 
letters differently in different localities, according to distinct 
rules: in like manner, a certain number of consonants have a 
different pronunciation in different dialects, although in litera- 
ture they are expressed by means of one and the same written 
letter. Eli Smith and Robinson (in his work on Palestine) 
propose to represent the actual pronunciation in the country, 



classes of the cerebral and palatal clicks, and if + may perhaps appear more 
convenient than /, we may yet venture to say that + resembles too closely 
the letter f. On the other hand, we must appear ourselves as decidedly opposed 
to the use of ng instead of ii ; and the more so , because in these languages 
both 11 and g are capable of being joined to clicks, and the reader is there- 
fore led to believe, that ng before a click must be either a union of n and 
g, or of h and g^ which last frequently occur in connection in these 
languages. 



83 

and their endeavours are to be highly prized*; but the linguistic 
scholar will prefer to follow the written system fixed by litera- 
ture, and to neglect the varying deviations and shades of modern 
pronunciation. Great difficulties are met with in transcribing 
the Hebrew system of punctation, which, having only in after 
times been grafted upon the alphabet inherited from former 
ages, appears to be inconsistent with itself. 

In conclusion, we present the reader with a number of alpha- 
bets transcribed after our own system. We are aware that in 
many instances further researches must correct and complete 
our labours. We have followed the best and latest investiga- 
tions to which we had access in each individual language. The 
attempt is intended to show the easy applicability of our alpha- 
bet to the most different languages; and to induce scholars to 
follow in the same way, and eventually to correct and improve 
the details. 



^ Compare also the excellent essay of Lane on the modern pronunciation 
of the Arabic vowels, inserted in the publicatio,§is of the German Oriental 
Society. 



SECOND PART. 



COLLECTION OF ALPHABETS 



HEDOCED TO 



THE STANDARD ALPHABET. 



GENEEAL DIVISION OF LANGIJAGES. 



LITERARY LANGUAGES. 

A. Gender -languages. 

I. Japhetic (Indogermanic). 
II. Semitic. 
III. Hamitic. 

B. No -gender langtmges. 

I. Asiatic. 

I. Turanic or Tataric. 
II. Monosyllabic. 
III. Isolated. 
II. Polynesian or Malayan (Oceanic). 

ILLITERATE LANGUAGES. 

III. Australian or Papuan. 

IV. African. 

I. Primitive or South African. 
II. Isolated or Middle African. 
V. American. 



I 



89 



Our first division is in Literary and Illiterate languages. We 
call those languages literary, which for the most part have a 
system of writing and at least a beginning of literature. The 
illiterate languages have with few exceptions no writing. This 
makes of course a great difference with respect to the intro- 
duction of the Roman alphabet. It is far easier to introduce it 
among the latter nations than the former, where it has to over- 
come an indigenous alphabet with its characteristic features 
and historical claims, which it must respect even when not 
quite adequate to the physiological import of the respective 
letters. The illiterate languages offer only the difficulty of 
determining the true pronunciation of every sound without the 
important guide of an indigenous alphabet fixed by the speak- 
ing people themselves. The sounds once being known, the signs 
are easily applied. This is the reason why our explanatory 
remarks are more numerous in the first than in the second 
part. This division referring to the knowledge of writing is at 
the same time, generally speaking, a geographical one, since 
the European, Asiatic and in a great measure the Polynesian 
languages are literary^ the Australian, African and American 
languages illite^^ate. 

We combine with this first division a second, referring to the 
use of grammatical gender. It is not accidental but very 
significant, that, as far as 1 know without any essential ex- 
ception, only the most highly civilised races — the leading nations 
in the history of mankind — distinguish throughout the genders, 
and that the Gender-languages are the same as those, which 
scientifically by linguistic reasons may be proved as descending 
from one original Asiatic stock. The development of peculiar 
forms for the grammatical genders proves a comparatively higher 
consciousness of the two sexes; and the distinction not only 
of the masculine and feminine, as in the Semitic and Hamitic 

G 



90 

languages, but also of the feminine and neuter gender, exclusively 
expressed in the Ja'phetic branch, is only a further step in the 
same direction. The formation of genders has appeared to me so 
characteristic of the three principal branches, that I thought it 
(1844) a sufficient reason, to ascribe all the African nonsemitic 
languages, which distinguish the genders, to the Hamitic branch, 
viz. — besides the old Egyptian and the Coptic — the Beja 
language of the Bishari (whose ancestors were the Ethiopians 
ofMeroe), the Dankali, Somali, Galla and other neighbouring 
languages, al those of the Libyan tribes between the Egyptian 
Oases and the Canarian Islands, including the Hausa farther 
on to the south, and even the widely distant languages of 
the miserably reduced Hottentots and Bushmen, whose immi- 
gration into their actual seats is still a curious problem, con- 
sidering the absolute diversity of their language from all their 
northern neighbours and at the same time its traces of a 
certain affinity with the Egyptian language. 

If we are not yet able to prove the affinity also of all no- 
gender languages to the former and to one another, although 
their original relationship is inseparable from the propagation 
of the one human race, it would certainly be too hasty an as- 
sertion, to say that we never should be able to do so. It seems 
howev^ unquestionable, that the three great branches of gender- 
languages were not only in the past the depositaries and the 
organs of the historical progress of human civilisation, but that 
to them , and particularly to the youngest branch of them , the 
Japhetic, belong also the future hopes of the world. All the 
other languages are in decHne and seem to have henceforth but 
a local existence. The geographical division seems therefore the 
most appropriate for them, and we prefer it for our purpose 
to the other, which might be based upon the diflferent forma- 
tions and features of language. 



LITERAEY LANGUAGES. 

GENDER LANGUAGES. 



91 



SANSKRIT. 



^ ^TT 




f 






Tt ^^ 


^ 'T ^ 


X 




^ ^ 


m ^ ^ ^ "^ t etc. 


^ ^ of 


ir 


^ 


w ^ 


11 ^ %T %r ^'^ ^f 


z^xir 


^ 


T 3o 


^ ^ 




rf ^ ^ 


^ 


^ 


^ \ir 




XT ^^ 


X 


^ 


XR ^ 



The Virdma ^^ indicates that no vowel is pronounced. 



Ancient pronunciation. 
ad h 

it u u k g n 

r f I I ci 'I etc. Ic g n Hjc) 

ai di au du ar dr t d n 

t d n 
p h m 



y 

r I 
I 

V 



Ug' 
K § 

f (f 
t d 



Modern pronunciation. 



a a 

it u u 

r f I I a t etc. 

o O O o 

e ai 6 au ar dr 





h 




k g n 


X 




c ] n 


if- 


y 


t d n 


8 


r I 


t d n 


s 


I 


p h m 


i 


V 



Ml gh 
ch Jh 
th dh 
th dh 
ph bh 



G2 



\y9 



92 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 

^^TRt: ^'f^^ftftrft^ -^rR^ff I ^ %^t -^f ^^f^ II 
^ssrf^RT Tf^iT^-^rrrW^ t^% f^% I ^W^T^tRTII 

^ ^ ^r^^^ f^ff: ^ft^Tftr i ^ tt^g 'r^ft ii 
^rf^ffrn ^f^wg: ^wf^^Rf^^nr: i ^ ^f^TT'TiTfi: ii q ii 
^^W ^T^"^ ^^ ^t ^f^^ftr I ^^TfciErw^rfi^T:: n 

(Beginning of the Rigveda ed. Aufrecht.) 

Old pronunciation. 

Agnim flat purduhitd^ yagndsya daivdm rtvigd^ 

hdutdrd ratnaddtamd. 
agnis purvaiBir rsiBir tdyau nutandir utd^ 

sd daiva dihd vaksati. 
agnind rayhn asnavat^ pdusam aivd divdi-divai^ 

yasdsd virdvattamd. 
dgnai! ya yagndm advard visvdtas pariMr dsi^ 

sd id daivdisu gaJcati. 
agnir hdutd kavikratus satyds Jcitrdsravastamas 

daivdu daivdiBir a gamat. 
ydd angd ddsusai tvdm^ dgnai^ dadrd karisydsi^ 

tdvdit tdt satydm^ ahgiras. 

Modern pronunciation. 

Agnim llepurohitd^ yajnasya devam rfvijd^ 

h6td7^d ratnadhdtamd. 
agnis purcebhir rsibhir idyo nutanair uta^ 

sa devd eha vaksati. 
agnind rayim amavat, posam eva dive -dive, 

yasasd viravattamd. 
agnel yd yajnam adhvard visvatas paribhur asi^ 

sa id devesu gachati. 



SANSKRIT. 93 

agnir hotd kavikratus satyas citrasravastamas 

devo devebhir a gamat, 
yad anga ddsuse tvam, agne, bhadrd karisyasiy 

tavet tat satyam, angiras. 



Remarks. 

We distinguish an ancient and a modern pronunciation of 
Sanskrit. Just as the Romanic nations pronounce the old Ro- 
man alphabet in a different way from the old Romans them- 
selves, and the modern Greeks the old Greek alphabet dif- 
ferently from the ancient Greeks, by adapting to the written 
ancient language the gradually - changed pronunciation of the 
living modern language : likewiseHhe Brahmans of to day do not 
pronounce the Sanskrit in the sa#e way as the old Brahmans 
of that time when the Devandgar0Y^y\img was settled, but ac- 
cording to the sounds of the now livkig Indian languages. The 
linguistic rules of Panini and his scMars are only adapted to 
the old pronunciation, which happil^we are able, in following 
the instruction of the old GrammajKns, to determine better 
than that of any other ancient langMge, A real intelligence 
of this language and its harmonic ^^^'nism of sounds is not 
possible without knowing the truef al^eient pronunciation, and 
considering the eminent importarice of the Sanskrit for the 
comparison of languages, it seems indispensable for scientific 
linguistic purposes to approach also in transcribing the Deva- 
nagari as near as possible to the ancient, pronunciation. The 
euphonic rules respecting the letters ^ W \T5» "^ etc. become 
absurd, if we suppose for them the modern prcinunciation c j e 
ar etc. instead oi Jc g ai ar etc. The case, however, is different, 
when the transcription aims at more practical purposes and 
must therefore- have regard to the actual pronunciation of the 
Indians. With this view we have added the second scheme. 

The ancient pronunciation of the Devanagari letters has been 



94 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

discussed elsewhere by the author ^ , and his views seem to have 
been appreciated for the most part. Some of them have been 
mentioned above. We repeat here the results in a few words. 
"^ r and "^ Z are simple vowels and can therefore not be expressed 
by ri and U: their value is that of a cerebral r or I vocalized by 
the inherent sound of e. The Anusvdra^ which enters instead of a 
nasal dropped at the end of words in patcsa or before other con- 
sonants is a vocalic change of nazalization, and is to be indicated 
as such by a diacritical sign over the vowel, not by adding any 
consonantal letter. Ii; "^ "^ "^T are diphthongs. The Visarga 
belongs not to one but to all local classes of consonants ; it would 
therefore lead to mistakes, if we were to take h for its basis in 
our transcription. It was so weak a sound, that in the Devana- 
gari it was not represented by a full consonantic letter, but by 
two dots ( ♦ ). Whe should retain the same indication if it 
had not already another European signification. A slight modi- 
fication (s) may suit our purpose. The sounds called Gihvdmuliya 
and Upadmdn'iya would correspond to a very week j^ and /, but, 
as they were of so fugitive and variable a nature, that in the De- 
vanagari they were, like the Visarga, only indicated, not sub- 
stantially written by full letters, it seems advisable not to go 
farther in our transcription; we keep the Devanagari indication 
by X. With regard to the palatals '^^'mc g n^ we have spoken 
above. The palatal fricative IX has conserved in some regions its 
original sound ^, but its transition into the actual sound s seems 
to have soon taken place ; we add the sign j[ only in brackets. 
The letters s and r better keep in Hnguistic works the cerebral 
point, although there is no dental s and r in the Devanagari. 
The solution of R^ g etc. into kh , gli etc. is against the appre- 
hension of the ancient grammarians, who treat those letters 
as simple ones. 

The modern pronunciation has not abandoned the simpleness 
of the vowels r and /. The diphthongs X[ and ^ are turned 

^ Paldographie als Mittel fur die Sprachforschung , zundchst am Sanskrit 
nachgewiesen. Berlin. 1834. 



SANSKRIT. 95 

into simple vowels e and o. The palatals ^ and ^ have been re- 
solved into the compound sounds ts and dz, which, considering 
their etymology, we write c'andj' (see the Introduction p. 9). "^ 
and "^ sorrespond actually to the Polish letters s and sz\ we write 
them accordingly s and s (see p. 7 1). T! has lost its cerebral nature, 
and we write it r without the dot so much the more as in other 
modern Indian languages there has been introduced a real ce- 
rebral r by the side of r, this latter being still written with the 
Devanagari sign T- With respect to the Aspirates, we follow 
the Hindustani writing, which resolves them into hh, ph, etc. 
We have already mentioned^ that this solution into two letters 
is not against our physiological principles (see Introd. p. 11). 
We maintain the decided reprobation of the use of the letters 
ch^ chh^ sh, g instead of our c, ch, s , s, as incompatible with 
any sound principle of transcription. It is evident that we 
have to resolve the Devanagari ligatures, including "^ ks^ into 
their component letters. 

With respect to the separation of the single words, we have 
to follow, against the Devanagari custom, the European principle, 
that every grammatically separated word is to be separately 
written in the latin transcription. This is effectuated without 
difficulty in the cases where consonants are to be separated 
from consonants or from vowels. With regard to the eras is 
of vowels between two words , we should resolve them simply 
into their component parts and leave it, as we do in latin poetry, 
to the reader to pronounce them according to the Sanskrit rules. 
We write therefore n^s^qitTlj tataivdstd with three words tatd 
aiva dsld or, after the modern pronunciation, tathd eva dsid. 
We think it not necessary to indicate the crasis by an apostrophe, 
as it has been proposed, considering the frequency of the 
case, and the destination of the apostrophe in European writing 
to indicate the elision of a letter. We prefer to make use of 
the common sign of diaeresis for the rare cases, where in 
Sanskrit the hiatus is demanded. 



96 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 







PALI. 










7!^ e§ 


a a 
e e 

it u u 


H Ifl etc. 


a d etc. 


m n e 


•» 


• 


a lAi 


k g n 


h 


s 


kh gh 


a 6 ^ 




tti 


Ml U 


cj n 


- 


y 


ch jh 


•c ^ nn 


/^ 


ill 


■J ai 


t d n 


- 


I 


th dh 


• ♦ \" 


M 


l^iM 


o a 


t d n 


s 


Ir 


th dh 


u a M 




o 


id fli 


p h m 


- 


V 


ph bh 



Specimen. 
Namo Tassa, BhagavatOy Arahato^ Sammdy Sambuddhassa ! 

1. llamas sitvdna Sambuddhd, susiiddhd^ suddhavd sajd; Maha- 

vansan pavakkhdmi^ ndmmdnddhikd^Hkd 

2. Pordnehi katopeso, atwitthdrito kvacl^ ativakvaci sdkhitto^ aneka 

punmmttako; 

3. Vaj]itd tehi dosehi, sukhaggahanadhdrandj pasddasdvegakm^d, 

sutitoca updgatd^ 

4. Pasddajanake thdne^ tathdsdvegakdrake,janayantdpasddanca^ 

sdveganca, sundtha td. 
(Mahavanso ed. Tournour, ch. I, 1 — 4.) 

Remarks. 

The Pdll is one of the older Prakrit languages, which, together 
with Buddhism, has been extended beyond India, principally 
to Ceylon, Birma and Siam. In these countries the Pali is 
still used by the Buddhists for their rehgious books, where it 
is written in the different indigenous characters. The character 
which we have represented here is that of Siam. The palatal 
and cerebral sibilants, as well as the vowels r and I have 
disappeared; the cerebral ,/• has become a dental r. ^°and "^ 
have been dropped. 



PALI. OLD PRAKRIT. 



97 



OLD PRAKRIT. 



^ 


^ 






a 


a 




T? %r 




^ 6 




T t ^^ 




i I u u 




^ t etc. 




a I etc. 




1|% 




ai au 




^^^ 


f 




^ ^ 


k g n 


h 




^ W^ 


- 


^ 


W W 


c j n 




y 


z ^ w 






^ ^ 


t d n 


- 




cT Q[ ^ 


^ 


T ^ 


^ ^ 


t d n 


s 


r I 


XT ^ ^ 




^ 


^ ^ 


p b m 




V 



kh gh 
ch jh 
th dh 
th dh 
ph hh 



Specimen. 



{Prahddha Candrodaya, beginning of Act. IV.) 

Maitrl: Sudd me Muditde sdasddo fadhd mahd Bhailavi 
gd-sanasdbhhamddo hhaavadie Vinhubhatrle parittddd piasahi 
Saddhetti; td ukkanthidena hiaena piasahi kahi pekikhassd. 

Remarks. 

In the Indian literature the different dialects of the popular 
language are called Prdkrit in contradistinction to the Sanskrit 
as the purer literary language of the higher classes. It ap- 
pears in the dramatic works by the side of the Sanskrit and 
is written likewise with Devanagari letters. It has lost the 
same sounds as the Pali, apd moreover the I. The letters n 
and n only occur in conjunction with the letters of their own class. 



98 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES, 



HINDI. 



"^ ^ Tt t etc. 



^ ^ ^ 

<T ^ ^ 
XI ^ ^ 









3 ^ f 



^ 6 
it u u 

r a e I etc. 

o 

ai au 

k g n 

c J n 



t d n 
t d n 
p h m 



y 



kh gh 
ch jh 
th dh rh 
th dh 
ph bh 



M 



Specimen. ^ 

"^ ^^ ffTT ^ t^rr f ^>^ ^5% ^T ^T% wr ^1^ *! II 

(Matth. 2, 1. 2.) 

Herod rdjd ke samay me Yisu yahudah des ke Betlehem me 
jab janm hud^ dekho pandito ne piirab se Yirusalem mi dke 
kahd. Ki yahtidiyo kd rdjd jo utpann hud, so kahd haif kyoki 
hamne purab me u-ske tdre ko dekhd hai aur uske pujd karne 
ko dye hai. 

Remarks. 

The Hindi is the language of* the Hindus in contradistinction 
to the Moslem population of India. It is spoken in the whole 
of North India, principally in the country of the upper Ganges 
and it is understood almost in all India. It is written with 
Devanagari letters, which to this purpose are but little altered. 



I 



HINDI. 99 

The vowels f I |, as well as the consonants ?z, n and visarga 
are no more in use; also the simple r is very seldom used. 
^ and ""Bf have lost their cerebral sound. Instead of "^, which 
IS only used in Hindi prints, if the writer whishes to write 
a Sanskrit word as closely as possible to the original Sanskrit, 
"IT is very generally substituted with the pronunciation of our 
common s. Provincially "^ takes the pronunciation of j^ and 
the compound characters "W (H) and "^ (gn) that of ch and 
gy. The cerebral letters 1[ d and ^ dh^ when medial or final, 
take very frequently another pronunciation, which by European 
scholars uses to be indicated by a dot under the letter ^, ^, 
and transcribed by /• and rh. This changement of sound seems 
to me to belong originally to the Dravidian languages where 
we find a similar occurrance, especially in the Tamil. ^ and ^, 
are probably only shght assibilations of ^ and ^, as / is an 
assibilation of g. There is indeed physiologically very little 
difference between a cerebral £ and ;-, zh and M, the friction 
on the tip of the tongue , erected at the cerebral point, causing 
almost unavoidably a slight vibration of the tongue, and re- 
minding by it of the letter r. A perfect analogy to it is the 

physiological proximity of y and r of the Arab. (cf. »Li;, yazdh^ 
of which the French have made razzia) , the slight friction of 
the / at the guttural point causing likewise very easily a 
vibration of the soft palate. It would therefore be more con- 
sistent with the genius of the language, to write those two 
letters z and zh', but it seems nevertheless advisable to prefer 
the hitherto usual transcription of r and r/i, so much the more 
as already in the Hindustani writing the arable characters J 
and p. have taken their basis from r, not from 3 d. 

The traders and in general the lower class of natives, write 
and print the Hindi very frequently in a character called Kaithl^ 
which is an imperfect imitation of the Devanagari. 



100 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



HINDUSTANI. 



! t 
o' o' o! eti'- 



In Arabic or 
Persian words. 





» 






^ ^(^) ^ 


- 


- 


^ # 


^ z 


u^ 


C5 


^^•R* 


o J 


' 


j' 


41 ^3 ^j 


oo O 


LT 


j^ 


•p ^^ 


W r 


- 


3 


«:?. i^: 



J 



J 



a a 

e 

i I u u 

a a I etc. 

at au 



I h 



k g 
t d 



t d 
p b 



n 
m 



r I 
w 



kh gh 
ch jh 
th dh rh 



th dh 
ph hh 



^ \ X r 



\ ^ 3 z 

1 / 



Specimen. 

Ol^** -^♦'^^ '^i>'i^ iC^ ^—r^'-^'^H ^.l^-^J iP »L.wL>b ^jw^Jl>5-^ V*'-?*' 

J - .J 

Matth. 2, I. 2. 



HINDUSTANI. 101 

Jah Herodts hddsah he waqt yahudiah ke Bait-laKam me >Isd 
paidd hud , to dekho hat majusio ne purah se AursaUm mi dke. 

Kahd kih kaha hai with Jo yahudio kd hddsah paidd hud^ 
kih hamne purab me uskd sitdrah dekhd aur tisse svjdah karne 
kd de hot. 



Remarks. 

The Hindustdnl or Urdu is still more generally understood 
through all India than the Eind'i. It is a mixture of Hindu 
with Arabic and Persian. The Mohammedan conquerors, pe- 
netrating into India since the 11^^ century, carried with them 
their language and writing. The latter was received by the 
conquered population; but from the language only a number 
of words was inserted into the Indian language ; the grammar, 
although mutilated, remained Indian, and likewise the system 
of sounds. It was therefore necessary to introduce for the In- 
dian sounds new letters into the Arabic alphabet, principally 
for the cerebral sounds t d y, which were expressed by the 
dental bases with the addition of four dots ^ ^ J or other 
diacritical marks. The letters n n n and s, which already in 
the Hindi were of little use , dropped entirely. "JT turned into 
(J^ s. T and ^ were written t^ or ^ and ^. The anusvara 
was expressed by q n. The merely Arabic letters / q j( 
y ^ d(t) d s z ^ d z f were still written in the Arabic 
and Persian words, but seldom preserved their original 
value. ^ and p are not pronounced at all ; p- R is not distin- 
guished from » ^; o^ s and ^ d sound like u^ ^^ -^ d(t) 
like t. The letters q X Y ^ ^ f ^^^ pronounced by the Mo- 
hammedans often, but not generally, according to their arabic 
value, by the Hindus like ^, kh or k, ^, ], J or 5, ph or |j; 
d ? § are not distinguished from z by the Mohammedans , and 
pronounced j or s by the Hindu; n before g and k is mostly 
nasalized as n. The anusvara is represented by q, the dot of 



102 JAPHETIC LANGUAGE. 

which in modern prints is commonly dropped at the end of words 
to indicate the nasalization of the vowel. 

It is evident that we have to transcribe the Arabic letters 
according to their etymological value, not to their imperfect 
Indian pronunciation. On the other hand we are not autho- 
rized to replace the dropped Hindi sounds n n s beyond the 
want of the Hindustani writing itself The sound lA s is 
physiologically, as we haee shown above, as well palatal as 
dental, and originates more frequently from palatal than from 
dental sounds. In most alphabets therefore we may range 
more conveniently this letter to the palatal row, where there 
exists one , than to the dental , to which s belongs. We may 

justly neglect the \ ' in the beginning of words. The arable 3 w 
is substituted to the Indian "^ which in Sanskrit was a dento- 
labial v. In Hindustani the Arabic pronunciation 10 prevails 
almost entirely, even in Indian words. We transcribe it there- 
fore w. Some times the Hindustani is written and printed 
in Devanagari letters, and in this case no notice is taken of 
the purely arabic letters, to which the Indian sounds and 
characters are substituted as stated above. 



SINDHI. 



103 



SINDHI. 

(The Devanagari and Arabic letters are given according to Dr. Trumpp's system.) 



•^ W[ 


^ ^ ^ 


3T 


f 


! 


^ 


^ 


- 


I 


tt ^ 


^ W ^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


W 


^ 


^ 


^1 


Tt 'S^ 


Z ^ TIT 


^ 




? 


? 


^ 






^"^t't etc. 


. . . 


. 


• 


• . 1 


. . 


. 


rr 


^ ^^ 


'^^ 


rr ^ ^ 


- 


^ 


T^l 


^ 


V 




^ W ^ 




^ ^ ^ 


^ 




^ i 


XR 


^ 




? 


i' T 


tfS li) ^ii>J 


^' 


« 




^ 


# 


t 


1 1 


-> 3 


^ ^ # 


^ 


lA 


l5 


i^ 


•^ 






! ^?! ' ^' 


o J 5 


3 




J 


^'^ 


^3 






o' o' ol O^! etc. 


o ^ 


• 


* 


^^ 


^ 


pj 


_b 




^'^' 


V V ^ 


^ 




3 


U 


•^ 


_ 


O 


a a 














3 


n 


^ 


k g n 


9 


h 




kh 


gh 


^ 


X r 


* i w «^ 


^ J A 


a 


s 


y 


ch 


Jh 






a a I I etc. 


t d n 


4 


- 


r 


th 


dh 






«{ ««/ 


.... 


. 


. 


. . 




. . 


_^ 


s S z 




t d n 


- 


s 


r I 


th 


dh 




^ 3 z 




p h m 


b 


~ 


V 


ph 


bh 




f 



104 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 
Hindu character. 

cT ^^T ^ rmft "^f^^ ''t f^# ¥^ % ^[^ "^jm "^rf^: 

Matth. 27 1. 2. 

Musaimd7i character. 

^xU^^l O^^ l5^>^ O^^ U"^^ ^ J-:^^ cnv' a^-s^^ ^ 



JadM Isu Qlsa) yahudd (^yahudaK) ]e Betlahama (Bait-laKama) 
mi Meroda je patisdha je dlhani me fdyo ta disu inajusani 
uhhirande hhd Yirusdlemi (^Aiirsalima) ml acl cidU ta. 

Yahudyani Jo pdtisdhu Jo fdyo dhe, so kithe dhef chd kdni 
ta una Jo tdro uhhirande me disl huna khe pvjana dyd dhyu. 

Remarks. 

The Sindhi, the language of the province of Sindh on the 

lower Indus, differs in essential points from the Hindi and 

is an old independant Prakrit language. There is a great 

number of different Sindhl alphabets, a survey of which 



SINDHI. 105 

Capt. G. Stack gives in his "Grammar of tbe Sindhf language", 
Bombay. 1849. p. 3 — 8. They originate all from the Deva- 
nagari, are none of them widely different, and are all incomplete 
inasmuch as they do not distinguish all the sounds in writing, 
which are distinguished in speaking. The European scholars 
have therefore preferred to make use of the most generally 
known and most complete alphabets, especially of the De- 
vanagari for the Hindus, and of the Arabic for the Muham- 
medans. Others, as the Missionaries A. Burn and A. Matchett 
have given the preference to the Panjdhi alphabet. Capt. 
Stack in his numerous writings uses the Devanagari. Dr. Trumpp 
in his Stndhi Readingbook ^ uses besides the Devanagari also 
the Arabic letters. 

The four sounds, which we have written g j d h are 
peculiar to the Sindlu. Their pronunciation is that of the 
letters g j d b uttered with a certain stress in prolonging 
and somewhat strengthening the contact of the closed organ, 
as if one tried to double the sound in the beginning of 
a word gga^ dja or gga^ dda^ hha. The letter ^ or «. is 
described as sounding like ddy\ but I conceive that we have 
it to do here with the old pure palatal ^, which by our ear 
is not easily distinguished from d\ lying between our g and d. 
It belongs certainly by etymology to the palatal, not to the 
dental row, and the same apprehension is shown also by the 
figure of the corresponding HindustdnJ characters, which are 
those of the palatal g with the addition of a dot, not those 
of the dental d. For this reason we incline more to the ex- 
pression by J or g\ than to that by d. The cerebral s has turned, 
as in the Hindi, to s; and besides the now dental T. r, a new 
cerebral r has been formed. With respect to the three letters 
d d ;*, there is a certain confusion in the book of Capt. Stack. 



^ A Sindhl Reading -book in the Sanskrit and Arabic character. London. 
1858. 8. 



106 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



There are only two characters ^ and ^ distinguished by him, and 
the explanations given by him p. 6. note and p. 9, as to how to 
assign the two characters to the three sounds, are contradictory. 
As for ^ t/, there is no reason to deviate from the Devana- 
gari ; r is distinguished as in the Gujarcitl and Bangdll through 
the dot below ^. The Arabic letters ' fi q J y d(t) d s z ^ d z f 
are generally expressed in modern prints by the Indian letters 
^f^^^rf^^^^^^^ with dots below. 



GUJARATI. 






a>{ etc. 



9 (^) 



"6 OL (^ 


S 




•n ^(^) 


^i 


^ 


^ s lu 


(S' 


«a 


n ^ n 


^ 


?. «■ 


H n ^ 




H 



I S 

\ u 



a a 
e 6 
i I u u 

d d I etc. 
ai an 



k g n 


h 




c J n 


i 


y 


t d n 


(s) 


I 


t d n 


s 


r I 


p b m 


- 


V 



kh gh 
ch Jh 
th dh 
th dh 
'ph hh 



GUJARATI. IQJ 

Specimen. 

^f^ fTTTR ^^ % 1% %t^ ^^T^ ^iT^T WHl^l WT^- 

Matth. 2, 1. 2. 

Ne Herod raj and ddhcidd omd ihudamdnd Bethlehem md Tsund 
jamnd pacht em thait he mdgWe paravthi Irusdlem md dmne kahu he, 

Ihudwno je rdjdjjanmo che te hdhd che? Kem ke hame puravmd 
tehend tdrdne Joo ne hame tehenu hhajan karvd devd chaie. 

Remarks. 

Gujardtl is the name of the dialect spoken in the province 
of Gujardt in the south of Sindh. It approaches very nearly 
to the Hindi , and is written in two characters , viz. in the De- 
vandgarl and in the peculiar Gujardtl character, which in de- 
rived from the Devanagari. In the Balbodh all Sanskrit letters 
may occasionally be employed in Sanskrit words; but the sounds 
of r f I I r I s s are not found in Gujardtt words , and the 
nasal letters n and n^ which occur in the language before the 
letters of their own classes , are represented by the anusvara. 
The Gujardti letter 5, corresponding to the Sanskrit ^ is 
distinguished by the Brahmans from -s, but both are equally 
pronounced by the people as s and are therefore, confounded 
with one another. The cerebral "^ is changed in Gujardti 
partly in M, and partly in s. 



H2 



108 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 





MARATHI. 


^ •^T 


a a 


It ^ 


e 6 


Tt ^^ 


i I u it 


'W^ 


rl 


^t^ etc. 


d t u etc. 


^^ 


ai au 



^^^ 


f 


- 


'^^^ 


^ 


^ 


z ^w 


^ 


35 


cT ^^ 


^ 


T^ 


^ ^^ 


- 


^ 



^ "^ k g n 


h 


- 


i i 


i 


3/ 


^ ^ t ^} V' 


s 


I 


^ V t d n 


s 


r I 


xjj ^ p h m 


- 


V 



kh gh 

ch jh Ibefore e, % 

th d/fc J before «,o,^^,r,/ 

th dh 

th dh 

ph bh 



Sp 



ecimen. 



Matth. 2, 1. 2. 

Ani Herod rddd cd divasdmadhyS Yesu yahudddesdttl Bethlehe- 
mdt Janmald asatd pdhd purva pradesdpdsun konl jndni Yarusa- 
lemdt yeun bolale kl, 

Yahudydtd do rddd janmald , to kothe dhe f kd ki dhml purva 
'pradesdnt tydtd tdrd pdhild dni tydld bhajdvayds dlo . 

Remarks. 

The Mardtht is spoken in a great part of Western Middle 
India. It has its own character, for which however the 



MARATHI. 109 

Devanagari may be substituted. The former character is cal- 
led Mod and is generally used in common life. If the De- 
vanagari with few variations is employed to write the MardtM^ 
it is called Balhodh. 

The Mardthi and the Bangdli alone amongst the Prakrit 
languages use still the vowels r and I. It is a peculiarity of 
the Mardthi^ that the letters ^ W "i^ li' before the vowels 
e^ i and i are pronounced as in the other languages c j ch jh^ 
but before the deeper vowels a, o, w, r and / are changed into 
t d (and even z) th dh. This reminds of the double pronuncia- 
tion of the gutturals c and g in modern European languages 
according to the following vowel a, o^ u or e and V. If excep- 
tionally the pronunciation c^ J is kept before a deep vowel, ^ 
is inserted by some writers to indicate it without being pro- 
nounced separately, as in Italian the insertion of ^ in cid, gia 
indicates the pronunciation of co, ja. Others mark the pro- 
nunciation of c and / by putting a dot under the letter, ^, W, 
a system which seems to us preferable. It might be doubtful, if 
we ought to distinguish in the transcription those sounds or to 
follow the indigenous writing, in which the distinction is left, as 
in the Romanic languages, to the reader. But, as we have to 
represent in our transcription of foreign alphabets principally 
the actual state of pronunciation, and as those sounds are per- 
fectly fixed in the consonantal system of the Mardthi^ it 
seems evident, that we have to write these sounds separately. 
The analogy of c and / seem to require the signs t and d 
instead of ts and dz. 



no 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



PANJABl or SIKH 
■»f>HT 

"»*f "**fT ^ etc. 



cT 31 (n) 



nr^j 



a a 

e 6 

i I u u 

a a e etc. 






k g n 


h 




c J n 


s 


y 


t d n 


_ . 


r I 


t d n 


s z 


r I 


p b m 




V 



kh gh 
ch jh 
th dh(rh) 
th dh 
ph bh 



Specimen. 

Yahuddke BetleKem me Herod rdjdke kdl me Yisu fame hoe 
vekhu pandit purabte Yirusalem nu de ate kahiyd so kithe haigd 
jo gahudiyd kd rdjd janamyd kiuke purab disdvic tiskd tdrd asl 
veklide hdge aru tiskf pufd karneko de lid* Matth. 2, 1. 2. 



Remarks. 

The language of the S>ikh in the Panjdb^ the country of 
the upper Indus , has received many Arabic and Persian words. 
It avails itself however only of a character derivated from the 
Devanagari and called Gurmukhi. The letters are the same 
as in the Hindi except that s is dropped, and I and z are 
added. 



PANJABI. NIPALI. m 



NIPALL 



Specimen. 
f ft^ TT^TWr Wt ^cT It f^^ f^^^f *3<!t*=n<*i %cf^^ 

'nTT^R^^rr^* U Matth. 2, 1. 2. 

(N. T. Version by the Serampore Miss.) 

Herod I'djdkd usi waqt m§ Yisu yihuddh mulkkd Betlehemmd 
jfanmand veld her pandit purab disddekhi Yirusalemmd dyd aur 
unldl kahyd jo yihudiyd kd rdjd Janmau u kahd chaf Kydhd 
pur ah dehnd uskd tdrdldl dekhika7i hdmi usko pujd garankan dyo . 

Remarks, 

The Nipdll language, mixed with many Tibetan words, is 
spoken in a large tract on the southern slopes of the Hima- 
laya, north west of Bangal. The sounds are the same as 
in Hindi ^ and may be written with Devandgarl^ although in 
the country there are several pecuhar characters derived from 
it, in use. 



112 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



BANGALI. 






TF -n v5 


^ 




F ^ iP 


»r 


•^ 


§ ^ ^ 


^ 


^ 


^ Tf ^ 


^ 


^ ?T 


^ ^ '51 


- 


(^) 



* T? f 



a a 

e 6 
i I u u 

r f I I 

o o o o 

d d e etc. 
aV aw 



h g n 


h 


- 


c J n 


i 


y 


t d n 


§ 


r 


t d n 


s 


r I 


p b m 


- 


V 



kh gh 
ch jh 
th dh rh 
th dh 
ph bh 



Remarks. 

The language of Bangal^ the most northeastern province of 
India, approaches more than any other of the modern Indian dia- 
lects to the Sanskrit. The character does not differ much from 
the Devanagari. In the letter "^ b the cross-line is dropped, 
so that there is actually no difference of sign between ^ b 
and "^ V. The language however continues to distinguish both 
letters, and so does our transcription. 



BANGALI. URIYA. 



113 









URIYA. 








ei sii 


a 


a 


^ (3 


e 





i 


i I 


u u 


Sj 2|1 etc. 


Y 

o 

a d etc. 


^^ ^ 


ai au 




Q ^ 9^ 


? 




§1 q k g n 


h 




kh gh 


^ g^ Q 


Cl 


a 


Q ^ c' / n 


i 


y 


ch jh 


^ 




O S) t 4 V' 


s 




th dh 


£) ^ ^ 


Q 


Q SI 


2^ ^ !^ r/ n 


s 


r I 


th dh 


a Q a 




ia 


Remarks. 




V 


ph bh 



The language of the province Urlya^ the maritime country 
south of Bangal , approaches much to the Bangdll^ but with 
a greater share of Arabic words. The sounds are almost the 
same, but the pronunciation is said to be in general somewhat 
harsher, and the cerebral r is wanting entirely. The peculiar 
character of this country is often used there even in writing 
Sanskrit. 



114 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 







PAS TO or 


A F r A N. 






t 


Si 

or » 


■^ ^ ^ 


t t 




d t 


z ' 


t 


T 


is s " 


i> J. 


l5 






L5l 


\ ( z t ' 

^ 3^ . . ; 


lA j 


4 


-b 


(^Jp(jo 


L55 3^ 




• o a ^ 


LT - 


^^ 




^^ j 






y V r 




3 


- 4^ 


« 




k g n 


X r 




? ' 


n h 


a 


a 


\c i - 


^(i)^(r) 


^ 






^ 


6 


I? (^ - 


s z 








i I 


u u 


t d n 




;/• 






ai aio 




. 


. 


. . 


m 


s d z 






t d n 


6' 


r I 




e d z 






p h m 




V 




f 



Specimen. 






ale. 



^ , , ^ 3 ^ ^ ^ 3 * , ^ ^ 

-3/3 c^ «^ *^-?^ c^b ^-^^ 
Matth. 2, 1. 2. 



PASTO. 115 

Pah waqt cih >lsd da yahudiyyah pah bait laRam Me pah 
zamdn da Herodis sdh zowalai wah^ ndgdh mojilsdn lah masriqa 
nah pah Aursaltm waraylqh^ pustanah e {ye) wakrah cih da ya- 
huddnu hddsdh , cih zowalai dai, da cartah daif lah de sahaha^ 
cih e {ye) storai pah masriq kse mu lidalai dai au muz rdyli 
yu^ cih sijdah e {ye) ivqkru. 

Remarks. 

The language of the Afghans is, in accordance with the 
geographical position of their country, a middle limb between 
the Sanskritic or Arian and the Persian or Eranian languages. 
They use the Persian characters with a few modifications. 
Besides the usual vowels this language has an obtuse vowel 
nearest approaching to a, which we write in consequence a 
(see above p. 49). It has in common with the Sanskritic lan- 
guages the cerebral row; there is at least no difference of 
opinion with regard to the letters t and fZ, whilst, according 
to some writers, the letters n and r differ in sound from the 
Indian n and r. Slight deviations however appear sometimes 
to an ear not accustomed to physiological apprehension greater 
than they are, or result from unessential circumstances. Con- 
sidering, therefore, that in most Indian languages the four 
cerebrals t d n r have been developed together, and that even 
in Afghan writing all the four characters have been likewise 
characterized by one and the same little circle added to the 
corresponding dental letters, we do not hesitate to follow 
those who recognise the cerebral nature of the Fatto n and i\ 
Out of the original Palatals two new sounds have been formed 
besides c and /, viz. t and cZ, as in the Mahrdthl, to which 
we refer (see above p. 109). This latter did not receive new 
signs for those sounds, the Pasto on the contrary added one 
new sign ^, expressing by it both t and d. Only in modern 
times there has been introduced by the learned Pasto scholar 



116 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Dr. Trumpp a second sign ^ for d besides ^ t^ remedying 
thus an obvious defect of the Pako Arabic alphabet. 

There are two other sounds peculiar to this language which 
we must consider. They are represented by the characters 
(j^ and J.. Their pronunciation differs essentially in dif- 
ferent parts of the country. In the western Afghanistan 
it approaches very near to the pronunciation of (Jv s and 
J z; in the eastern portion, for instance in Peshawer, to that 
of ^ J and 5 y. According to Dr. Trumpp these letters 
are derived at least partly from Palatals — another part seem to 
proceed from original Cerebrals — and as the Afghans them- 
selves have taken the bases of their signs from lA s and j> z, we 
propose to take the same bases s and z in adding the palatal 
line s and z. Should it be desirable to indicate the eastern 
pronunciation specially we should take as bases j and / and 
add the palatal hne ;f , /. 

The Semitic letters which we have separated from the rest, 
are used only in Arabic or Persian words. We regret that 
the transcription of Capt. Raverty in his last Afghanic publi- 
cation (1860) has deviated so far both from any sound prin- 
ciple and from practical suitableness. 



OLD BAKTRIAN (ZEND). 



OLD BAKTRIAN (ZEND). 



117 





Vowe 


Is. 






Consonants. 


1 *Xf SAM 


i .= 


J^J^ 




a Cv ' ^ 


(U^^ 


? ? 




^ ^ 


;o ^ 






^ - - 


^ - - 


a/-- 


^ J 


> ^ 


\,v 


^ 










l^ rt) 






i 


00 ^'^ 


^^^ 


/ - 


-Mj eb 


Se 


mivo 


wels. 




^ e^- 


^ ^ 





^^ » 



Ligaturen. 
^jM^ C€>o e)tv 

Original pronunciation. 



Later (Persian) pronunciation. 



a a 
i i 
u u 



e e \ an 

' ^ I 

e e 

a 



y '^ 



7 i 



^ ^ 



a a 


e e 


a d 




k K h 


9 9' y 


n n 


- 


- 


- - 


i I 


e e 






Jc - - 


9 - - 


n - 


t 


i 
z 


9 - 


V u 


6 


a 










s 


z 












t f d 


d d d 


n - 


s 


z 


r r 


y{ii) w(uu) 


P P - 


b B - 


m m 


- 


- 


V V 










sk St 


ah 













k X h 


9 - / 


n(n) 


- - 


- - 




c - - 


./ - - 


n ' 


y / 
S Z 

s y 


y - 




t e(^) 


d d d 


n - 


s z 


r (r) 




P/ - 


b V - 


m(m) 


' 






sk(s) s 


t ah 









118 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



Specimen. 
. ^vuj?(>ow«^>Gtu7vU^ i^vu^^U(\3^(2;jLJ ^*^AJ*J^*^ \?>v^M ^\}sxOg 

vc»^/0*-<^CO •£7«.v^-MJ«J»-* sX.nsX'i^<Kj^ s.v^^j^.v(sj kV^^S'^G \l^Q>f^V 

Vendidcld, first fargard. 



OLD BAKTRIAN (ZEND). 119 

Mraod Ahuro mazdd spitamdi Zara^ustrdi: Azem dad'dm^ 
spitmna ZaraOustra. aso rdmo-dditTm noid kiidad sditim; yed'i 
zi azem noid daid^ydni^ spitama ZaraOustra^ aso rdmo-dditlm 
noid kudad-sditwi ^ vlspo anhus astwd airyanem vaejo frdsnawdd. 
[Aso rdmo-dditlm noid aojd rdmistdm^ paoirlm hitlm^ dad ahe 
paitydrem, mas md raica saddm haitlm.] Paoirlm asanhdmca 
soiBrandmca vakistem frddveresem^ azem yo Ahuro mazdd: Airya- 
nem vaejo vanhuyd ddityayd. Aad ahe paitydrem frdkerentad 
Anro mainyus pouric-mahrko^ azimca yim raoiditem zydmca 
daewo-ddtem. Dasa aioa^ra mdhho zayana, dya hdmina^ [hapta 
henti hdmino mdnha, panca zayana askare;] taeca henti sareta- 
dpd, sareta-zemo^ sareta-uricarayd; ad'a zimahe maid'Tm^ adta 
zimahe zaredtaem^ ad'a zydscid pairi-pataiti^ adta fraestem voiyna- 
ndm. Bitlm asanhdmca soidrandmca vahistem frdOveresem azem 
yd Ahurd mazdd: Gdum yim Suydo - sayanem. Aad ahe paityd- 
rem frdkerentad Anro mainyics pourii-mahrkd ^ skaitlm yam ga- 
waca dayaca pouru-mahrkem. 



Remarks. 

We call Old Baktrian, as others before us, the language 
of the Avesta (Zendavesta), the sacred books of the Eranian 
nations, especially the Baktrians and the Persians. These books 
of the Zoroastrian religion first originated in Baktria, in the 
vicinity of northern India, and are the principal witness of an 
old Baktrian civilisation, of which we know but little beyond. 
It was probably not before the time of the empire of the Achae- 
menides that they were introduced from the east to the west 
of Eran, and particularly amongst the Persians. The language 
still approaches so nearly to the Indian Sanskrit, that it was 
principally by the comparison with this language that Bur- 
nouf and Bopp were first enabled to decipher the Zend lan- 
guage. The Zend writing has the same origin as all the other 
phonetic writings, including even the Devanagari, with the 



120 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

exception of the Persian cuneiform characters. We are of the 
opinion, that the Zend alphabet existed already in the original 
country of the A vesta in the same perfection and completeness 
as we know it actually, or even higher, but that it may have 
undergone several changes when introduced into Persia and 
brought in contact with other cognate alphabets of the western 
countries. It approaches most nearly to the Pehlevi writing. 
We take this character of the Persian inscriptions and of the 
Persian handwriting, of the time of the Sassanides, not as the 
origin, but as the reduction of the Zend character, answering 
to the poor and partly semitized system of sounds, which at 
that time prevailed in the Persian language. Both writings 
underwent apparently the same alterations in their common 
signs for several centuries till about A. D. 600 and then at- 
tained essentially that same state which we still find in our 
Zend, Parsi and Huzvaresh manuscripts. 

In the mean tinie also the original pronunciation of the old 
Baktrian alphabet was altered, since its migration into Persia, in 
conformance to the altered sounds of the Persian language, as 
they prevailed already in the time of the Achaemenides and still 
more in subsequent centuries, — just as the pronunciation of the 
Devanagari letters approached more and more nearly to that of 
the modern Indian languages. The right apprehension of the old 
Baktrian sounds is traditionally preserved only in the alphabe- 
tical lists, which were faithfully, but, owing to the ignorance 
of the writers, incorrectly, copied from one manuscript into the 
other and thus handed down to us in a tolerably comprehensible 
state. The arrangement of the original sounds as above stated, 
is principally the result of the comparison of those ancient 
alphabets. It ought, according to our opinion, to be followed 
in every linguistic publication on the Zend language and might 
even do good services in a critical revision of our actual text. 

The vowel system is the most developed of all the ancient 
languages we know, not excepting even the Devanagari. 



1 



OLD B AKTRIAN (ZEND). 121 

There are two characters for each of the vowels a i u e e o d^ 
one for the short and another for the long ones. The semi- 
vowels i^ and >>, y and w^ were, conformably with their signs, 
reckoned not as consonants, but as vowels. . All the explosive 
consonants, r included, had both a simple and an aspirated 
form. Two nasal sounds are lost even in the alphabetical 
hsts, where they are represented by the repeated sign of the 
simple n I. The pairs of corresponding sibilants are given as 
stated above. The letter ^C ? ' was , as a palatal consonant, 
diflferent from the semivowel ^^, y^ in the same way as ^ v 
from >> w. The letter r had two signs, the latter of which 
was formed by adding to the simple ^ r the upper stroke ^(i))to 
indicate the aspiration (as in U,' f^ p). ^ was an aspirated v. 
The later pronunciation changed the aspirates K f p / B into 
the corresponding fricatives j 0(s) f y y. In consequence of 
this change the sign ,Ji> g disappeared entirely from the ma- 
nuscripts, and -^ became an almost arbitrary variation of 
J2^. We retain the writing ^, although the actual pronun- 
ciation seems to be not quite clear. The letter (S^ d escaped 
the assibilation; but it lost the aspiration and was pronounced 
Hke d\ we keep however the hook to distinguish it from J d 
etymologically. The aspirate e^ B was softened to v (perhaps to 
the German lo see p. 75); we write it v in putting a dot beneath, 
only to distinguish it from the afterwards identical initial v ^. 
The aspiration of n was lost, as that of n already previously; 
m is mostly dissolved into hm. The palatal sibilants vJU, s 
and J z took almost entirely the pronunciation of s and 0; we 
write them s and z to indicate their palatal origin. On the 
contrary ^M:) 5 assumes very often, in the mouth of the Parsis, 
the pronunciation tp s , and still more particularly e^ z that 
of z. There are linguistical reasons why we should not, 
in this case, follow them, but adhere, in our transcription, 
to the old sounding, although the usage of European scholars 
would be in favour of z for eO . The pronunciation of ^HJ s as 

I 



122 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

s caused its confusion with t^ , and yv , originally z^ is 
softened to y and used almost as identical with KT^. This 
latter circumstance will perhaps justify our transcription of 
yv by 2, with the basis of ;?/, according to the actual pro- 
nunciation, and with the addition of our diacritical sign of 
assibilation '', to denote its former sound. The letter KH y 
is (like ^ v) always used in the beginning of words, 6i y 
(hke >> tv) in the middle; it is nevertheless necessary, in our 
transcription, to distinguish them both, one being considered as 
a consonant, the other as a vowel. We therefore write "CZ y 
with the palatal line. The aspiration of J /• dropped, and then 
J /• became identical with ^ r. On the contrary the aspira- 
tion of ^ V increased and gate rise to the later pronunciation 
jiv^ and ultimately to ^ alone, thus producing a confusion with 
^ X' ^^ vvrite the ^ in virtue of its etymology ^. There 
is no indication of its ever having been pronounced explosively 
as q or kh. The first of the three ligatures ^yv , sh^ was in 
later times pronounced s, and therefore occasionally confounded 
with tp. 

A glance at these alterations shows, that the principal dif- 
ference between the old and the later pronunciation consists 
in the disappearance of the aspirations, which were peculiar 
to the Baktrian throat, and which either dropped without any 
compensation, or changed the explosive sounds into fri- 
cative. 

With respect to the vowels there is a general influence of the 
western languages to be observed in the less decided distinc- 
tion between the long and short vowels. This is the reason 
of many confusions, and explains, how the letter ^ e had been 
hitherto taken for e and as almost identical with ^ e^ and 
why moreover i and <^, ^ and -V, or even i and y, > and^ 
are frequently used in the MSS. for one another. The most 
striking change however took place in the letter J^ , which 
originally and still in the alphabetical lists 51 represented the 



OLD BAKTRIAN (ZEND). 123 

anusvara of a, viz a , corresponding to ^^^ a, but which 
afterwards was used as a separate consonantal nasal after 
the vowels and before certain consonants. The fact is, that the 
diflPerence between a and a was obliterated ; the sign ^^ be- 
came therefore disposable and was employed to express to a cer- 
tain extent what is called (though not rightly) by Sanskrit scholars 
the ^substituted" anusvara, whilst ^^ was reserved for the „ne- 
cessary" anusvara. This, now almost constant, use of .^ obliges 
us in spite of the evident misunderstanding which gave rise 
to this use, to look in our transcription for a corresponding 
consonantal sign, and there could hardly be a more conve- 
nient one than n , the more so as it is already employed by Bur- 
nouf. Simultaneously with this corruption, the entire designation 
of the anusvara sound, which existed in the Baktrian, but not 
in the Persian language, fell into confusion, and the peculiar 
expressions, which, according to the alphabetical lists, must 
have originally existed, were either exchanged for ^^ n ox <^ m, 
or they disappeared altogether lengthening only the remaining 
simple vowel. The vowel sign S*^ seems to us composed not 
of ^^ and i , but of ^*^ and > , and to have been originally the 
diphthong du^ which was afterwards changed into a. 

We do not state at length the reasons for the assertions as 
given above: they will be found discussed in a special disser- 
tation read before the Berlin Academy. 

In the specimen, we have made use only of the later pro- 
nunciation, because our manuscripts contain it to so large an 
extent, that we cannot substitute the original sounds without 
altering the actual state of the text. 



12 



124 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



OLD PERSIAN (CUNEIFORM). 



- y- <y «Ti<rr<^- 

TTf Tr — "^ -K — K^fr 

TT -iTf W KT fr <t] £11 IE h'i 

<n ^ -T T« 

Itttt ^TtT s<> K 

Foreign characters of doubtful meaning: •^^ J^ 






^ «^ 



CI Ca,i,{u) - Sa, i, u 

"i) ^ ta, i In Vrt, I, It 
U, 6 pa,i,u - - 

ai ,:, 
au 



ga,i? g'n 


- 


Ja, (u) - 


Zi 


da,i du 


di 


ba,i, u - 


- 


ma mil 


Vi 



/la,t, u 

Sa,i,(u) Za,i,{u) 
fr,a 



ra,i Ta 
W i Wu,a 



,i Uu 



Spec 



men. 



\ TTT tt ^yyy A ft m sy r<^ 7E <ft ^ \ «yy x< ttt x^ y<y ff t<^ 
A 7E y-y ^y y^ \ «yy x< m t<^ y<y ?? t<> \ «yy x< m t<> 
y<y TT T<^ TTT -< TTT ^yTy \ «yy x< m t<^ y<y ff ^<-\%^ sy 
T^ ff T<^ A «yy x< Tff T<^ y<y f f t<^ \ n <-< r<> <ft ^< ttt ^yTy 
\ n ff ^ -yTy Tff ys ^ <K T<^ TTT A ^ <ff ^ \ ttt sy ^ tff ^yTy 
<K T<^ TTT A -< ^ Tff \ <K «yy ^ ^yTT -< f f x< f f t<^ \ y<y m 
fyTy ff T<^ \ tt TTT sy r<^ ^ys <T'f << a «yy x< ttt t<^ y<y f f ^<- 
\ '■^ -< w \ ^ ff f yTy TTT \ n ff ^ -yTy m ys ^ a ff f f << 
tTTynf y£^<KT<^TTf \ ^ff>yTy m ^ Trfsy^tff *yTy a 



OLD PERSIAN (CUNEIFORM). 125 

£T ^M t< \ ^ si f? if Iff Ef ^M -< <K T<^ TTT \ ^ tf 

►M ^ A rr^ f T ^ ^ f T ^ \ r ir ^ ^ f f ^ <K T<- TTf \ ^ it 

T<> >rs <fT ^ A «Tr r< m t<- kt tt r<^ ^ m ^r^ <k t<> si w 

Elf TT T<^ A 'fE T<' ^M A <K «yf TTf *TTf -< TT ^ TT rf W \ 

T<r <K T<> ■frf ^ItT <K rf A <K r TTf \ ^ -« <rT fr tt t<> 'M 

\ ^ ^ItT TTf fM tff \ TTf ^M <K r<' \ <K Tr TTf \ ^ -« <Tf 
n f T rf f TtI a <K t<^ !ff \ TTf ^TtT tff «yi ^f tT \ ^ TtI <ff ^ItT TTf \ 
«TI ^ ^ rf y<T ff r<^ Tff A Tff <>< \ Kf Tff 'M f f t<^ \ Tt Tff 

sy X> >!£ <ff ^ A «rr ^ ^ r<^ K f f T<> \ ?f}{ \ ^M -< ■rff 
A ffTf <ff 'ItT Tff t<^ Tff a ^ItI t<^ f T r<^ \ ^ -« <ff ^Ts ^M A 
«yi ^ ^ T<' W f T T<^ Tff A Tff <K A Tff Tf ^It! \ -< ^ys "M 

\{{{}r \ <Er<ff^fT^MTff-rTr£r^<^rTr \ ^iex-^ttTa 
«Ti^TffT<^KrffT<'Tff\Tff^rTr<KTf 

Detached inscription A. at Behistun (Rawlinson). 

Adam Daryawus, j(saya^iya wqzarka^ j^saya0iya j^sayqOi- 
yanam^ ^sayq^iyq Par sty a; jsayq-diyq dqhyunam, Vistaspqhya 
pusq^ Arsamqhya nqpa, Hqj^amqnisiyq. Batiyq Daryqwus j(^sayq- 
^iyq: Mqnapita Vistaspq, Vistaspqhya pita Arsamq; Arsamqhya 
pita Ariyarqmnq, Ariyarqmnqhya pita Cispis; Cispishya pita 
Hq^amqnis. Oatiyq Daryqwus ^sayqdiyq: Awqhyqradiyq way am 
Eq^amqnisiya ^qhyamqhyq, hqca pqruviyqt amata amqhyq; 
hqca pqruviyqt hya amaj(qm toma j^sayqOiya aha Bdtiy a Dar- 
yqwus jsayqOiyq: 8 mqna tomaya tyiyq pqruwqm ^sayq^iya 
aha adqm nqwqmq 9 ; d'uvitatqrnqm wqyqm j^sayq^iya amqhyq. 



126 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



Remarks. 

The cuneiform rock -inscriptions of the time of the Achae- 
menides usually contain three identical texts, each of which 
is written in a different language and in a different writing. 
The last of them is the Assyrian text, in a Semitic language, 
the writing of which is, as system, the oldest of the three, 
consisting, like the hieroglyphical , partly of ideographic and 
partly of phonetic signs. The second or middle text, usually 
called Median and by Rawlinson and Norris Scythic, contains 
a language which, although it is not yet sufficiently ex- 
plored, seems to be essentially Turanian. It is written with 
a syllabarium of nearly K'O characters, which for the greater 
part are taken, both as to figure and to sound, from the 
Assyrian stock. Whilst therefore, we must regard this al- 
phabet as a later one with respect to the Assyrian, it is, 
on its part, older than the third writing, the first according 
to its place on the tablets, viz. the Persian alphabet, which 
we have here to consider. 

This Persian cuneiform writing is purely alphabetical and 
contains vowels as well as consonants. Some of its characters 
are very similar to some of the second writing, but entirely 
different in sound. There are scholars (Oppert, Rawlinson), who 
would claim also for this writing a certain syllabical nature, 
inasmuch as they contend that part of the consonants change 
their graphic signs according to the following vowel without 
altering their pronunciation. This opinion, however, unplausible 
as it is in itself, is disproved moreover by the circumstance 
that not all the classes of consonants are hable to this law 
of changing the figure, but only such classes where a simul- 
taneous change of sound may be accounted for by linguistical 
reasons. We may therefore be certain that every different 
sign belongs to a different sound. 

The Vowel u possessed the most general influence on the 



OLD PERSIAN (CUNEIFORM). 127 

preceding consonant. This vowel was apparently in all po- 
sitions pronounced with a strong breathing, which in Greek 
was often expressed by j( or even by k (Uwrazviya, Uivaksatara 
= XcoQaof-iia, Kva^aQqg). This breathing was transmitted to 
every preceding explosive letter, except the labials p and h. 
The letters k, t, g, d, w, ^^, r became accordingly aspirates 
and were expressed by peculiar signs. 

The Palatals J' and / seem to have no aspirate, owing to 
their assibilation which ranged them in this respect amongst 
the fricative letters. We distinguish the aspirates from the 
corresponding non-aspirates by placing the spiritus asper over 
them, and we prefer this writing so much the more, instead 
of separating the aspiration by the addition of A, because the 
formation of the aspiration m, n^ r, w is almost peculiar to 
the old Persian language and would hardly be rightly appre- 
ciated, if we write mh, nh, rh^ loh. We follow in this case 
only the precedent of Rawlinson and others, who write however 
m, n, etc. instead of indicating an aspiration. 

The second vocalic influence is that of the vowel ^, the 
softening and assibilating power of which is well known from 
other languages, especially from the Romanic. In the old 
Persian language this influence was confined to the explosive 
sonant letters /, d^ m. It consisted in loosening their explo- 
sion into the corresponding soft friction, changing therefore 
j into Zj d into d. The labial b is neither affected by u nor 
by *, for we find ba^ bu, bi with the same consonantal sign. 
But the softer labial explosive m took its place and was altered 
before u and i into m and v (which however was perhaps 
pronounced not as dentolabial v, but as pure labial w, see 
above p. 75). The semivowel ic was no doubt regularly pro- 
nounced with the same strong guttural breathing as the vowel 
w, and the same sign was used before a and before w; we 
write it therefore w '., yet the vowel ^, when following, was 
not consistent with this guttural nature of the w ; the aspira- 



128 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

tion was dropped, and the letter was changed into our com- 
mon w: wa^ wu^ wi. 

The letter ^ corresponds always to the Sanskrit tr, the 
zendic ^r, and was therefore hitherto transcribed in roman 
letters by tr. But it cannot be doubted , that this single letter 
expressed, as all the other letters, only one simple sound, not 
two sounds, which moreover, if they ever were intended, ought 
to be written, according to the laws of the language, ^r not tr. 
The combination ^r however exists besides {Mi^ra^ jfsa^nYa) 
and must therefore have been different in pronunciation. In 
the Turanian text we find instead of the letter ^ two s or 
(as Rawlinson reads them) two 5, and in other cases one s 
(or 5), as m Assina or Asina^ cissa^ etc. To the latter word, 
in Persian cisa corresponds the first part of the name of Tiooa- 
(peQvrjg^ and in the Pehlevi {Huzvd7^es) and Parsi the same 
original tr reappears as the simple sibilant 0L> s (J), as in 
^ vX) , ;>JU , $JU , three. It seems therefore advisable to follow 
this obvious hint in transcribing the letter yy by s. We write 
the letters ^^f f and }^ ^ and ^ , instead of Tih and th of Raw- 
linson, or E and t' of Bopp, having found the aspirates U^ t' 
already before u. They are not seldom produced by a fol- 
lowing r, analogous to the frequent combination of/r; and in 
Greek they are expressed by j and ^, as in L4xai/^€vi]g, Ml- 
^Qag. To ; and d before the vowel a correspond evidently 
the sounds z and d before ^. 

With regard to the vowels, there is no distinction made 
between the short and the long, and the shortest and most 
obtuse vowel, which was not identical with^ but only approaching 
to our a, was not written at all, although it formed syllables. 
We are thus very often at a loss to know where this indistinct 
vowel was pronounced and where not. It seems therefore 
important, to mark clearly in our transcription this interposed 
vowel, wherever it may seem expedient to write it. It will 
be more consistent with the genius of the language and in the 



OLD PERSIAN (CUNEIFORM). 129 

same time more approaching the true pronunciation, if we 
write the vowel yyy in all positions a, and the supplementary- 
vowel a. There is still another point, where the original 
writing is defective regarding the vowels. It has been proved 
that the characters i and u express not only these simple 
vowels , but also their respective guna-vowels. The preceding 
consonants indicate sometimes this guna-pronunciation ; in other 
cases grammatical reasons alone can decide upon our writing. 
But at all events we prefer to render the guna-vowels by e 
and 6 instead of ai and au as others do. Here is not the 
right place to discuss this and other points, which are de- 
veloped by the author in a special treatise. It remains only 
to state that there are still two unknown signs to account 
for, the first of which is only found in two foreign proper 
names, the second in a peculiar term for the word ^king**, 
which does not occur in the earlier inscriptions, but only in 
later ones, where it seems to be introduced from a foreign 
language. Thus we take the Persian alphabet stated above 
as complete, and regard the letters *£! and f^ as undeciphered 
foreign characters. 



130 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



i-^ 



MODERN PERSIAN. 

Persian sounds. 



Ly- 





c 










_J_ f_l. 


— ^ 




8 


— 




J 


i^ .s- 


— 


t 


5 




L5~ — 5— 


^ ^- 


— 


U^ 


3 


l5 


j5_ e5^— L5^— 


— — 


— 


— 


— 


~ 




O .3 


O 


LT- 


J 


J 




y V 


^ 


^ 


— 


3 



a a 

6 

i I u u 

ai au di id 



PersiaE 


sounds. 




_ i 


- 


h 




k g 


- 


X y 




^ J 


- 


s z 


y 


t d 


n 


s z 


r 


p b 


m 


f 


w 



Arabic letters. 

t z 



J^ (J^ (>0 Jf? 



Arabic letters 

with their Persian 

pronunciation. 

d(t) s{s) z(z) d{z) 
d{s) d{z) 



Specimen. 



ol._i ^^ J.. 



o' "r^ y 



^0 3 ^ , - 



o-^=^^ oby^ 



Lj cXwCiCo ..J-J^ ^^ 



o: 



Cr^} o'j^^: u^<J^ ^ J^ 



^ 
^ J 



oy Ai 






u-^^y^ o>^ 



JC^),) vA^ ,..)^x« 



o:^-; 






MODERN PERSIAN. 131 



o ^ 






- y 



Firdusi , Book of the kings (ed. J. Mohl, t. II, p. 4.). 

Zfi-mohed hed-in gune ddrim ydd, 
hem ez goft i an plr % dihqdn-nizad: 
k-ez dn-pes cundn herd Kd'us rdi^ 
ki der pddisdht M-jumbed zi-Jdi^ 
ez Irdn bi-sud td he-Turdn u-Cin. 
glider kerd ez dn-pes he-Mekrdn-zemm^ 
zi-Mekrdn sud drdste cun 'arils: 
her-dmed dem i ndi u-huq u-kus. 
hi-pedireft her mihteri bdz u-sdw, 
nekerd dzmun gdw bd sir i tdw. 
cundn hem gurdzdn be-Berber sudend, 
jihdnjui bd tdj u-efser sudend. 

Remarks. 
It is well known that the modern Persian language has 
admitted a great many Arabic words as well as the Arabic 
character. It uses consequently' all the Arabic letters in the 
Semitic part of the language, but only in writing. In the 
language spoken the purely Semitic letters p /•) ^ -^ Ji> u^ ijo 

are pronounced hke the Persian sounds i ^ » o j (j/. j, and 
even the letters o and ^ , which once had their peculiar pro- 
nunciation as ^ and 3, are actually pronounced like (j^ s and 
j z. We keep nevertheless the old value in our transcription, 
as Persian writing does, for the sake of etymology. 

The vowels e and are not distinguished in writing from a 
and w, and the i or t „of junction" is not written at all. These 
and some minor deviations from the regular pronunciation are 
not received in our transcription. 



132 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



ARMENIAN. 



^ 



J,t 



Vowels. 






H 




k t -^ 


Ul 




^ Lt 


/r 1^ no 




* <i 3 


*-■> 


n$- 


•" 1r P^ 



"I F 't 





^0) 


— 


/" -L 


— 


L ^ 


I 


u ^ 


ip 


(*)- 






e 

o 

a 

e e 

1 u 



nciation in 


Ar menij 






h^) 


k g K 


- 


X y(r) 


C J c 


- 


s z 


t 4 i 


- 


- - 


t d t 


n 


s z 


p h p 


m 


(/)v 



y 

r f I 

w 



Specimen. 

U. n^ "^/f A"/ luniunuiS^^ nn itrnubhu LiuiT I^PHPh^ ^^ nni-iub nuu 
mbnilU l^n ^ nn p-uinn.ifiubli aiutum ^luiP JtiufL^ : O^uiqtup luirjui^ui 
luniun all p-frnhrm "PH-h iffj /fi't'lb ^'-^^ nnm-iP uibniJj \\p*^1'h) "P 
qlrnl^libu U. QpP^hp ^ qiuJIrbui^ nn ^jt ^nuiu turLbjigl^. U. jtiut 
^mquin luilji iiujui utiLbbini ubuiuL. ui&tfi qifiniuL.^ luug^, oanLUi pu^ 
hgl^ jui^u qnn lunJjbJ] L. I^hgf' A^^ "Ptt {\C'^'V^^ ^P't /' 
qnun jtli^ fuibmigbiri l^i_ J^^ O-IrrL. 'biu iJubju junn^^n ^ Wc^fhi 
U. 1^)"U inbauib iuinq.utLii.fi Jon hunhusbq, 

Eznik, Refutatio haeres. (Petermann, Gramm. Armen. p. 44.) 



ARMENIAN. 133 

Minj jyev pnau er inj, asyen^ wc^ yerkinU yev woj yerJdr yev 
woj ail inj araratJc wor Kyerkins kam Kyerkri^ Zruan womn 
anun er ^ wor fargmani hajt kam pafU. Ezhazar am hast arar 
zi tyeryevs wordi mi liniti nema^ worum anun Ormizd, wor zyer- 
kins yev zyerkir yev zamyenain wor i nosa afnite. Yev hyet 
hazar ami Jiast afnyeloJi esksau atyel ezmtau, ase: Ogut inj 
ite /tastes zor afnyem, yev liniti ind wordi Ormizd^ yefe i zur 
inj canaityemf Yev minj dyer na zais ^orher ^ Ormizd yev 
Arhmen Kyyetan T'argandi mor iureant. 



Remarks. 

We are told that the actual Armenian alphabet was made 
up in the 5*^ century by the learned grammarian Mesrob. The 
figures of the letters are taken from the Greek figures of that 
time, as their uncial forms show; the alphabetical order fixed 
by the numerical value of the letters, is likewise that of the 
Greek, but occasionally interrupted by those purely Arme- 
nian letters which were unknown to the Greek. The ac- 
cordance of the letters common to both alphabets, as well as 
the orthography of the ancient proper names, and to a certain 
extent even the etymological comparison of the cognate In- 
dian and Eranian lans^uaores, with which the Armenian is 
closely connected, prove that the actual pronunciation of a 
large part of this people differs in some points widely from 
the ancient pronunciation. We speak of the Turkish Arme- 
nians, better known than others in Europe by their country- 
men in the Mechitarist convents of Venice and Vienna. The 
principal alteration of the old pronunciation consists in their 
pronouncing the ancient tenues as mediae and vice versa. In 
Armenia proper, however, and the surrounding provinces this 
change has not taken place. This has been carefully verified by 
the author examining personally the pronunciation of a learned 



134 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Armenian from Tiflis. ^ We can not, in consequence, hesitate to 
abandon the usual system taught, according to the Turkish 
pronunciation, by European Grammarians, and to follow that of 
the indigenous Armenians. There we find the letters k *" "i^ktp 
distinctly pronounced without any aspiration as real dry tenues^ 
like those of the Hungarian, of several German dialects, of 
the Sanskrit and other languages; t 't ^-i g d b^ are our 
common mediae and ^ 1^ i^ ^ U f y, the true aspirates, pro- 
nounced as the so called tenues of northern Germany, France, 
England and others, with a sensible breathing from the lungs. 
The pronunciation of the two palatal classes is more difficult. 
There is no aspiration heard in ^ and ^, although they cor- 
respond evidently to the aspirates of the other classes. Only 
the stronger closing of the organ is the same as in the aspi- 
rates, whilst, in opening the organ, the aspiration turns into a 
slight breathing z ov z ^ as if one would pronounce ^^2 and ttz. 
We write therefore c and i to indicate the double value of 
the first element. The c and j are- pronounced nearly as in 
church and in join\ but X d and & t are hardly discernible, 
the one being pronounced as dz^ the other as tz. The tongue 
takes in both palatal classes its full palatal position, in the 
first more behind, near the soft palate, in the second more 
foreward above the teeth. The letter 1 is now pronounced 
every where as the arabic ^ /, although it is proved, that it 
was in many cases formerly, and still in the 5*^ Ct., a kind 
of soft and more palatal Z, distinguished from the stronger 
and more guttural Z, the value of which is now that of our 
common I. The q_ originated from I was therefore in former 



^ Of. the Armenian Grammar published in Armenian by Bogratuni (Venice 
1862), and Petermann, who states the same in the Memoirs of the Berlin 
Academy 1860. p. 82. 

2 See my exposition about the true character of the tenues^ mediae and 
aspiratae in my treatise on the Arabic sounds and their transcription in 
the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy 1861. p. 105 sqq. 



ARMENIAN. 135 

times written ^ or /^ , and took its name q^^ yiun , not 
from the aium yat^ but from the ^ti liun. Hence the mistake, 
that in several Armenian grammars the letter 7^/, is reckoned 
amongst the liquids. It would perhaps be recommendable to 
linguists to distinguish the ^ even in the transcription from 
the original ^ by adding the original hook (']_= y, 'L = y). 
The letter j was originally 3/ or a short i. It is still pronounced 
as t in the diphthongs ai and oi. In the beginning and at the 
end of words it changes commonly into h^ which we write for 
the sake of etymology K. The sound of p is that of our com- 
mon ?', whilst «- is pronounced as a strong double r, which 
we write f. The figure and value of "Jf) / is of later origin 
and is found almost entirely in foreign words. */_ is the dento- 
labial v, not the english iv^ to which the consonantal <- between 
vowels nearer approaches, although it resembles more the w 
of middle Germany. The vowel u is represented by its simple 
form I- only as the second part of a diphthong, otherwise 
it is written hl. The letter & (called h-^yej) is almost re- 
gularly pronounced ye; this is always the case in the beginning 
of words, and « in the same position is pronounced wo. 
The vague vowel ^ ^ is seldom expressed in writing, but 
always pronounced in certain combinations of consonants. We 
follow in our specimen the actual pronunciation without en- 
tering farther into the interesting etymological questions. 



'.^ 



136 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGKS. 



KURD (Zazd dialect). 



* 
















a a 




- 


3 


- 


lK\h 




e e 






^ 








ee ^ ' ^ 




k 


9 


n 


X r 




it u u u 




Jc 


9 


n 




y 


au eu ai ei 




c 


J 


- 


s z 








t 


d 


n 


s z 


r I 


a a 


e e 







d\ 








i I 


e e 
6 


u 

i 


P 


h 


m 


f ^ 


w 


au ai e 


u ei 















Specimen. 
Jdiki hi ci nehl^ yau Aldh he, yau drewdnci he. Arts teUndini. 



Roj yeke heri dri qdfehid se keiye, same keiye rd kaut, sehdh werist^ 
dme dreye^ aundike drdi mesdhidi cini; dya sdwe newete pamte^ 
aundike my due sdme yau Iwe dmei zere, sie mesdhe, drdi werdf. 
Arewdnci werist^ yau cua gei^dute^ dai lu^eru; erzia lu^e tepiste^ 
lu>e hermdi. Lu>e vd ke drewdncira: te me vera de, ez tueri 
keinai pasdde Misi'i wazen^a. Arewdnci vd ke: ez yau merdumu 
drewdncia^ ti meri citdu keinai pasdde Misri wazennf Lu'e vd 
ke: ti me mekse , ez tueri wazen'a^ eke me newaiste keinai pasdde 
Misri, ti me verd de. Arewdnci vd ke: ti meri sudnd hudne. 
Lu>e drewdnciri sudnd wend, drewdnci Iwe verd dai. 

P. Lerch, Forschungen iiber die Kurden. I, p. 88. 



Remarks. 

The language 'of the Kurds in the mountanous countries of 
Kurdistan and Laristau seems to be divided into 5 chief dia- 
lects, these of Zazd., Kurmdnji^ Kelhw^i., Gurdni and Luri. 



\ 



KURD. 137 

The alphabet given above is that of the Zazd dialect, as fixed 
by P. Lerch in his Researches on the Kurds. The Kur- 
mdnji has no n nor d\ The Kurds have no peculiar writing 
nor any literature. There exist only some modern specimens 
of their language written in Persian letters. Mr. Lerch 
therefore employed in his work the Standard alphabet (see 
above, p. 6). The vowel i is not our z, but our vague vowel 
e approaching to i. Instead of Mr. Lerch's t and d we have now 
proposed to write c'and J. There are in the Kurd language many 
Arabic words, which, if written in Arabic or Persian writing, 
keep all their Arabic letters. But, as the people have no 
written literature, we think, that Mr. Lerch was right in 
transcribing only the sounds that they really pronounce, 
amongst which we see also the Semitic letters q and //. 



188 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



A?' 





OSSETIAN. 










Georgian characters 








z 


a - - 


- 


t 


- 




& 


6 d i 


- 


h 


'^ 




a ~ 


S 6 6 


- 


- 


" 


ix. 


(a) (2) - 


? ^ « 


- 


IJ 


d 




g 


^ 3 t3 


- 


- 


- 






5 ^ a. 


& 


I 


% 


^ 




3 i oj a 


* 


" 


3 


1 f 


^> - - 


- 


h 


- 




a a 


h g k 


n 


X 


^ 




e e 6 


h g Jc 


- 


- 


- 


3/ 


e e p - 


C> J c 


- 


8 


/y 




it- u u 


P d t 


- 


- 


- 






t> d t 


n 


S 


z 


r I 




p> b p 


m 


f 


- 


w 



^ 



Specimen. 

Dialect of Jalgusidse. 

Maj fid keti de arwiti mideg; siydeg •went de nom; ertewent 
de meligad; went bar dew ^ kwid arwiti mideg ^ afteder basPil; 
Jul ne bonti radP majen abon; erne 7iiwa] majen ne j^este, kwid 
maj niwajisPem ne jesginten ; erne ne ma baftaw maj filewzereni, 
fele ferwezinken maj fidbilizey; emeneme dew u meligad, tij 
e7ne isdirad mikhagme. Amin. 

Digorian dialect. 

Ma^ fide keci de arwitiy miedeg; qedoz node de non; artauode 
de p'aPajJindde; node de bare, arwiy miedeg kud, zan^ay bgl 



OSSETIAN. 139 

uoteder; maj dot taruniy tujey rddPe maj^an dhoniy; ama 
j^aldrkane mejaste majan^ majpet' kud jaldrkandn nie jasJcmten; 
ama ne ma fardduyunkane; falfayerwdzunkane ma^ fudhuluzey ; 
oy tuj(ey dawon ey paPajjindde^ tu^e ama sPurjindde mukhdgey 
mukk'dgma; faiiod. 

Tagaurian dialect. 
Maj( fid keti de arwitiy mideg ; siydeg uod de nom; ertauod 
de paPajdindd; uod de bar, arwiy mideg kud, z:ajil auteder; 
maj clul oninen rddP majen dhon; erne ^aldrken ne j^aste maj^en^ 
majPer kud j^aldrkenem ne ^astmten; erne ne ma ferdduinken; 
fele ferwezinken maj fidbilizey; ay tijey key is dewon paPajdi- 
nddj tij( erne spirdindd mikhdgey mikhdgme; fauod. 

The Lords prayer. Sjogren, Osset. Sprachl. p. 32. 

Remarks. 
The Ossetes have no alphabet of their own ; but their sj^stem 
of sounds approaches so much to the Georgian or Grusinian, 
that the Ossete Jalgusidse, as well as afterwards Dr. Rosen, 
both found it convenient to employ the Georgian alphabet to 
represent the Ossetian language, for which it was necessary to 
add but a few consonantal signs. It was by far more difficult 
for Sjogren to adapt to the same language the Russian alpha- 
bet. This eminent scholar distinguishes three dialects, two 
northern, the Digorian and the Tagaurian, and one southern, 
which he met with in the writings of Jalgusidse. We use 
above the Georgian alphabet , to connect our transcription with 
former labours. The letters i\ ^ i (Jc^ g k) have been added 
by Jalgusidse J to denote the softened sounds rising from the 
gutturals h g k before e i i. Sjogren doubts without reason 
about the letter h^ which is even demanded to complete the 
system and which may exist too in the two other dialects 
without having been remarked. He explains erroneously the 
letter j^ as g or gh, since it corresponds, as Rosen rightly 

K2 



140 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

states, to the sound of our /. The special designation of m 
by Sjogren seems to be less essential, since neither Jalgusidse 
nor Rosen have made this distinction. We keep however the 
letter y^ though not distinguished by Rosen from i. The Di- 
gorian dialect, according to Sjdgren has t ct instead of Ic g. 
As they are all apparently real palatals, the dialectical dif- 
ference can only be very slight, so as to make it advisable 
to write also in the Digorian dialect H g. The Ossetian 
temies of our first column of consonants approach perceptibly 
to the peculiar pronunciation of the Georgians and other Cau- 
casian nations. The true tenuis (cf. above p. 134) is pronounced 
with its full explosion, but with closing the glottis and in con- 
sequence without any pectoral aspiration (A), after which fol- 
lows the new opening of the glottis (^) in order to utter the 
appertaining vowel. Hence our transcription h^ P^ p> etc. The 
aspirates of the third column have but a slight aspiration, and 
we write them so much the more without the spiritus asper 
{Tc fete), as their opposition to the first column is already 
indicated there. As to the vowels Sjogren makes very nice 
distinctions, especially of the different e sounds, of which he 
states three gradations, observing, that the most open e 
(his ce) approaches very nearly to the English a in hat^ fat. 
It will certainly be found convenient to reckon his second gra- 
dation, the short <?, and his third gradation, the long e', both 
being nearer to i than ce^ as one class in our transcription. We 
get therefore two classes, e e and e e^ the former being pro- 
nounced very open ; and as this class is more frequent in the lan- 
guage than e <?, we leave the line underneath and write e e and 
e e. Likewise we write o 6 for the open o, and o for the closed 
0, which Sjogren writes to. The indistinct i sound, the u of 
Sjogren, approaches nearest to 2, but it has nothing to do with 
the hard z, as is shown clearly by the fact, that it softens a 
preceding k or g into Jc and g. In the Tagaurian dialect the 
letters e, o; Jc^ g^ h^ c, /, (T', s^ z are wanting. 



a a 



e 

(e)e 


e 


6 


i I 




t 


ai au 


el 


m 


ed id 


od 




di du 


ei 





LITUANIAN. 

LITUANIAN, 

k g (n) 
Jc g 

^ a 

II u t d n 

'p h m 



141 



y 

r I i 

V 



p m n r I s z s 



Specimen. 

Menu Sauluze vede, pirmq pavasareli. 
Sauluze ankstl keles, Meniizis atsishyre. 
Menu vens vaiksztinejo^ Ausz7-me pamyl'ejo, 
Perkuns didei supykes ji kdrdu perdcdyjo. 
Ko Saidiizes atsishjrei, Auszfme pamyl'ejei, 
Vens nakty vaiksztinejeif szii'dis pilnd smutnybes. 

(Dainos. Schleicher, Litau. Lesebuch p. 3 ) 

Transcription. 

Menod Sdtduze vide, pirma pavasareli. 
Sauluze anksti keles ^ Menuzis atsiskire. 
Menod vidns vdikstineyo, Ausrine pamileyo. 
Perkwts didei supikes yi kdrdu p)i'''daliyo 
Ko Sduluzes atsisktrei, Ausrine pamileyei, 
Vidns nakti vdikstineyeif sirdis pilnd smutmbes. 



Remarks. 

The standard work on the Lituanian language is the Gram- 

^ mar of A. Schleicher (Litauische Grammatik. Prag 1856.). 

He there treats extensively the phonic part of the language. 



142 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

We refer, therefore, to his work in the following remarks. 
The Lituanians have no peculiar writing; they use generally 
the German or Latin letters with several diacritical marks. 
S(^hleicher follows in general their common orthography, adding 
only some nicer distinctions and moreover the accentuation of 
the single words, and the quantity of the vowels. The vowels 
not accentuated are represented as long by adding the stroke 
above (cl u etc.^, and as short by adding occasionally the 
sign " or by leaving them without any mark; but the quantity 
of the accentuated vowels is expressed by the accent itself, 
which is the acute (a) for the long, and the grave (a) for the 
short vowels. The dropping of an original n behind a vowel 
is indicated by a little hook under the vowel. As this mark 
is of no phonetic value, but only an etymological hint, it 
may be entirely omitted as in most other languages. If, in 
linguistic books, it seems convenient to express the nasali- 
sation, with which these vowels once were pronounced, our 
sign " is to be added over them. There are two classes 
of e, one open e, and the other closed e. The former bears 
no diacritical mark, the latter is marked by Schleicher by 
a dot over it (<?'). But as the latter is by far the most fre- 
quent, as even our short specimen may show, we prefer to 
mark the open e, aud to leave without dot the closed e (e). 
As this closed e (e) is found to be only long, as well as o, 
which neither occurs short, it might seem convenient not to 
indicate at all the length of e and 6 by the stroke. But we 
think that it would in the contrary oflfend the reader, and still 
more the linguist, to find that amongst the other vowels a e 
iu^eo^deiu the two unmarked e and o belong exclusively 
to the long and not to the short vowels. We write therefore 
e and o, as in modern Sanskrit. There are three other vowels, 
written by Schleicher e^ e and u^ which designe three diph- 
thongs formed by e i (or e) and o preceding a very short a. 
Schleicher describes them as sounding like 0,"" i" (or e"*) and 



LITUANIAN. 143 

(?'', and remarkes, that e in old prints was expressed by 
ea, and e by ie. The diphthongic nature is certainly to be expres- 
sed in our transcription. We indicate therefore the fugitive a 
by writing those three diphthongs eci^ id and od. There are 
besides two other kinds of diphthongs, of which the one, written 
di du ei in by Schleicher, has the accent on the first vowel, 
the other, written by the same ai au ei or with the accent 
of the word ai au ei ^ on the second vowel. It is of course 
necessary to distinguish both, but, as the accent ' on vowels 
is destined, in the Standard alphabet, to indicate only the 
accent of the word, we prefer to mark rather the accentless 
part of the diphthong by the sign of brevity ^, in writing 
ai au ei m similar to ed id od and in contradistinction to di 
du ei, by which we distinguish the second kind of diphthongs. 
According to Schleicher the a in his diphthongs di die ei is 
pronounced long. This distinction, however, which might be 
expressed by writing di dH ei seems to us not essential enough 
as to be marked in the common writing. We should even 
prefer to write only ai au ei, as the combination of these 
vowels seems always to be diphthongic, not dissylable, if it 
was not for the analogous writing of the diphthongs ed id od. 
We refer moreover to the similar formation of diphthongs in 
the Rumanian language. 

The guttural consonants are often changed into the pala- 
tals Ic g and the dentals t d into c j. This change origi- 
nates in a peculiar propensity of the language, prevailing still 
more in the Slavonic languages, to insert between the conso- 
nant and the following vowel a shade of i or y especially be- 
fore one of the palatal vowels i or e. In the Lituanian ortho- 
graphy this half y is commonly expressed by i or j, and on 
the end of words by an apostrophe or (as in the work of 
Schleicher) by our palatal hne. We prefer, according to our 
principles, to put the stroke also in the middle of the words: 
loho, kurmu, as in ve)'p\ vem. The guttural i, written already 



r44 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



in Zemaitic books like the Polish ^, is to be distinguished from 
the common l\ but the guttural ?i, as being used only and 
always before k and g^ may remain without mark. The letter 
c occurs only in foreign words and is to be written ts (or t) 
according to its pronunciation. 

We add for the convenience of the reader the alphabet of 
Schleicher; 



Vowels. 

(Stand. A.) (Schleicher.) (Stand. A.) (Schleicher.) 



a = a 


a 


^ 






ea — 


e 


^ ^ 


a = a 


a 


4 


a 


id = 


e 


e 


e = e 


e 


f 


iO) 


od = 


u 


Of 


e = e 


e 


f 


i 


at = 


di 




e = e 


e 






ail = 


du 




I = I 


I 






et = 


ei 




I = y 


i 


( 


( 


m = 


ui 




6 = 


6 






di = 


ai 


ai 


u = u 


il 


¥ 




du = 


au 


au 


u = u 


u 


H 


V 


ei = 


ei 


ei 








Consonants. 












(Schleicher.) 






k 


9 




(n) 


- - 






ki,Tc 


9h9 


- 


- 


J 




cz 


di 




- 


sz z 






t 


d 




n 


s z 


r 


I i 


p 


b 




m 




V 





OLD SLOVENIAN. 

OLD SLOVENIAN. 

(Church Slavonic, old Slavonic.) 



145 





Glagoli 


tic. 






t 


A %i 


- 


^ - 




3 8(0) 


© flP 


- 


UJ ifil 




8,(5P) ««¥ m 


h; dB 


- 


- - 




€ 3€ 


on nb 


^ 


'3' 9d 


h [fb 


•8 °8 


fD E? 


o^° 


(*) OD 




- 


- - _ ^- - . 


) 




A (2X^) JP 3€ fte 








(oBo) - - 








Cyrillian. 






A 


K r 


- 


X - 




t (w) 


M - 


_ 


111 ;k 




y ZI ov,s 


H s 




. 




b(H) X 


T A 


H 


C 3 


p A 


-b 


n B 


M 


(+) « 




Ki K H w y\ Wk 


5 5 •> / 5 

H p A (K 


r r) 




All EU Hll oil ziii 


III 






a 


^ 9 


. 


X - 




^ ofq) 


c J 


- 


s z 




2 I 2* 


t d 


- 


- 




6 


t d 


n 


S 2 


r / 


*6:) ^ 


P b_ 


m 


(/) V 




.<ai) 


h r I (H g ^ 


V 




ja> i(ji) juje jo 


St 






aj ej V oj ij 


(^ ks ps) 






. Hard vowels: a u ' 


I u 


Soft 


vowels: e t 


i e- e 



17 



146 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 
K(j clovehu otu vasii imi suto oviti i poguhl'i jedino otii niju no 
ostaviti deveti desetu i deveti vii pustini^ i ideti vu sledu pogi- 
huseje^ domdeze obresteti jo ? I ohretu vuzlagajeti na ramja svoi 
radvje se^ i prisidu vii domu suzivajeti drvgi i sosedi glagole 
imu: radujte se su mimojo, jako ohretoj(u ovrto svojo pogihu- 
8dj6. Glagolo vamu^ jako tako radosti bodeti na nehesi o jedi 
nomi gresmite hajostijimi se neze o deveti desetii i deveti pravidi 
7iikii, ize ne trehujoti pohajanija. hi kaja zena imosti deseti dra- 
giimii, aste poguhiti dragiimo jedino , ne vuzizajeti svetilmika^ i 
pometeti j(ramtc , i isteti prilezino , domdeze obresteti f I obi^^tiisi 
si/zivajett drt/gi i sosedi glagoTosti: radujte se sii miinojd , jako 
obretoj[u dragiimo, joze 'pagi(bij(it. Tako^ 9^(^90^^ vaviii, radosti 
bicajeti predH aniigeli boziji jedinomi gresmite hajostijimi se. 

Ev. Luc. 15, 4 — 10. 

Remarks. 
The Old Slovenian , the language spoken in the 9*^ century 
by the Slovenians in Pannonia, is no longer a spoken lan- 
guage. It is now only used for liturgical purposes by the Sla- 
vonic nations belonging to the Greek church, as the Russians, 
Bulgarians, Servians. It is the most ancient of all the Sla- 
vonic languages known and therefore of high linguistic interest. 
This is also the reason , why we must adapt our transcription 
as closely as possible to the old signs, rendering every one 
i . by a distinct and exclusive character, even in those cases, 

where the actual pronunciation does not distinguish them. The 
monuments of the old Slavonian literature are preserved in two 
kinds of writing, the Glagolitic and the Cyrillian. It is now 
proved by Miklosich beyond any doubt, that the more ancient 
of the two , the Glagolitic, is based on an old national alpha- 
bet, which originally was taken from the Greek, but was re- 
modelled in the 9* century and adapted to Christian literature 
by the two Slavonic apostles, Cyrillus and Methodius, brothers. 



OLD SLOVENIAN. 147 

The so called Cyrillian alphabet was introduced by St. Cle- 
mens soon after, about 900, simultaneously with the intro- 
duction of Christianity amongst the Slovenians in the countries 
of the Haemus. It was soon preferred to the former both on 
account of its greater fiicility of design and its similarity with 
the Greek uncial alphabet from which it only differs by a few 
signs expressing letters unknown to the Greek. 

The Glagolitic alphabet, as we read it now in the manuscripts, 
is not indeed the original, but has evidently undergone several 
modifications, owing partly, as we may suppose, to the ar- 
ranging hands of Cyrillus, partly to the contact of the later Cle- 
mentine (Cyrillian) alphabet and the eastern dialect, to which the 
latter was specially adapted. We have in our mode of transcribing 
it only consulted this modified form, being almost identical, 
as regards the single letters, with the Clementine or Cyrillian. 

The vowels a e o in both alphabets offer no difficulty. There 
is a secondary form of o, which in the original Glagolitic al- 
phabet may have referred to a distinct mode of pronunciation, 
(of)^ but which is now only used for the interjection w, and 
may, therefore, be transcribed by 6. 

The Glagolitic ^ may have been destined originally for the 
guttural ( in tUj instead of which we find also tn, the guttu- 
ralisation of t being indicated by the prefixion of ii. Afterwards 
the same sign was also employed for z, though not in all 
manuscripts, e and je^ i and ji were first distinguished in the 
Cyrillian alphabet, not yet in the Glagolitic, where we find 
onlyy« and ju. The Cyrillian H, although it takes in the alpha- 
betical order the place of the Greek li, expressed originally, we 
believe, the diphthong ji (ii = H), as i' or i the simple i. But II 
was afterwards also employed for V, and identified with Glago- 
litic ^. We therefore are now only able to make a convential 
distinction in our transcription between "i (= Gl. 8, Cyr. V), i ov ji 
(= Gl. T, Cyr. If), and i (= Gl. oBRP, Cyr. Z|). The character II 
which occurs in the later Cyrillian manuscripts after vowels indi- 



148 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

cates the abridgemeDt of ji or i into j, by which letter we tran- 
scribe it. 

The compound character in the Glagolitic alphabet for u 
and the corresponding double character in the Cyrillian is de- 
rivated from the Greek ov. The Glagolitic letters, which we 
transcribe by e 6 je jo^ perhaps also ja and ju^ may have had 
originally — as we are led to believe from their paleographic 
forms — a pronunciation somewhat different from the Cyrillian, 
to which our transcription is adapted. 

A peculiarity of the Slavonic languages , which probably pro- 
ceeds from the presence of certain Tataric elements , consists in 
the systematic distinction of guttural and palatal vowels , gene- 
rally called hard and soft vowels. The guttural or hard vowels 
are a u i o o it; the palatal or soft are e 'i i e e z. The 
palatal tendency, however, is so predominant, that not only 
the soft vowels, but also the hard are very often pronounced 
with a shght preceding i or j. The merely phonetic origin 
of this j is testified by etymology as well as by the compound 
form of the letters which represent it as adherent to the re- 
spective vowels. This is the origin of the diphthongs ja^ je, 
ji^ jii^ je and jo. It might be desirable and would certainly 
be more consistent with the genius of Slavonic language to 
write these compound vowels by single caracters as it is done 
in the native writing. The division into two signs, however, is 
preferable by more than one reason, and is not against the rules 
of our standard alphabet. We have thought it convenient to 
write this slight ^-sound not by a full consonantic y, but by/, re- 
presenting as if it was half a 3/, although this sign j does not 
occur in our general alphabet. This designation offers besides 
the advantage of being in concordance with the almost ge- 
neral mode of writing adopted by most Slavonic nations writing 
with Roman letters, as well as by most of the respective lin- 
guists. We have therefore preferred it to any other designation, 
which we might have invented. In a similar way also the shor- 



OLD SLOVENIAN. 149 

tened and indefinite vowel e of other languages, behind or be- 
tween consonants, has taken in Slovenian either the palatal or 
guttural form and has become a surd yet perceptible i or u (^, ti 
mutescens). These two sounds K i and Z u are in most cases 
remains of corresponding fuller vowels and were no doubt for- 
merly more distinctly pronounced than they are actually. There 
can be no doubt that we must follow the original writing in 
transcribing them by separate characters. We have chosen for 
that purpose the two signs i and ^, adopted already in the 
Rumanian alphabet, as well as by several linguists. The 
sign of brevity ^ is the less objectionable, as the distinction of 
long and short simple vowels is little know^n to the Slavonic 
languages. The later pronunciation of the Old Slovenian drop- 
ped the to more completely than the f; yet, for etymological 
reasons, u most also be written even in cases, when it seems 
it was not any more pronounced. 

The distinction between guttural and palatal pronunciation 
applies also to many of the Slovenian consonants, accord- 
ing to their combinations with either a hard or soft vowel. 
The palatal modification^ however, as in the case of the 
vowels, is also in this case the predominant, and the only 
expressed in writing. The dental consonants, by this modifi- 
cation, are generally assibilated; the liquids 7i I r and in 
foreign words also the gutturals k g j( become palatalised or 
\ softened, in which case they are marked by some diacritic 
sign. The character b. however is not by itself a sign of this 
palatal modification, but represents still a real vowel, which 
only bestowes on those of the preceding consonants, which are 
capable of it, the palatalised form. It would be, therefore, in- 
exact to replace in our transcription the i by the palatal line 
added to the preceding consonant. 

The vowel 'ii is unknown to the Glagolitic alphabet. It is 
evidently formed by a combination of the Glagolitic \ a with 
the Cyrillian L i and represents therefore the diphthong la or 



150 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

at But since the diphthong la or ja had been expressed from 
the beginning by the sign ra (analogous to the combinations 
je ji ju je jo) and since Miklosich has proved that the character 
'Jb could not in many cases where it is employed represent a 
combination beginning with y, we do not doubt, even without 
referring to other reasons, that the value of "t was originally 
m, afterwards <?, which on account of its diphthongic origin we 
transcribe by e. The frequent interchanges which take place 
in the manuscripts between the two signs 'Jb and ra, are, in this 
respect, of no import. 

The diphthongs rii lu ri U are considered by Miklosich 
(p. 34 sqq.) as the vowels r /, an opinion which is supported 
by the New Slovenian. But historically founded as this ex- 
planation seems to be, it could not justify our adopting it 
against the Cyrillian mode of waiting, by which these sounds 
arc written as double characters, and even in this combined 
form do not figure in the alphabet. Only in those rare cases 
where y and I without the addition of u and i represent a 
syllable, we might be justified in transcribing them respectively 
by r and Z. 

With regard to the consonants we have still to mention 
that we have preferred the single transcription t and d to the 
combined ts and ds, as being, especially together with c (and /), 
more adequate to the Slavonic phonetic system, which opinion 
is also supported by the general adoption in the latin Slavonic 
alphabets of the corresponding single signs c and z. The con- 
tracted form for SJJ we transcribe by st as it is done already 
in the Glagolitic codex Clozianus. A real softening of the 
consonants takes place in the Old Slovenian language only with 
regard to the liquids n r l^ which in this softened state we 
transcribe by n r t. The consonants ^ f ks ps are only used 
in Greek words. 8 and i|i are only compendia for oy and uit. 



SERBIAN. 



151 



SERBIAN (Illirian). 





Cyrillian wri 


ting. 






a 


K r 


- 


X - 


] 


e o 


H ^ 


- 


in >K 




H y 


^ - 


- 


- 


P •'I 


V 


m ^ 


H 


C 3 




ja je jn jo ]y 


h % 


- 


- 




aj ej iij oj j] 


u 6 


M 


(^) B 





Jb H> 



a 
e 

i u 

r 

ja je ji jo jtc 
oj ej ij oj uj 



Latin 


wr 


iting. 


k 


9 




- 


c 


dz 




- 


c 


- 




" 1 


t 


d 




71 


6 


dj 




- 


P 


b 




m \ 


Ij nj 









Cf) 



J 

r I 



a 
e 
i u 

r 

ja je ji jo ju 
oj ej ij oj uj 



Standard alphabet. 



k 
c 
t 
t 
c 

p 
I' 



Hard vowels: a o u r 
Soft vowels: e i 






m 



(f) " 



r I 



152 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 
Mii^H 6o^e! Hj^a Be^HKora! 
Ujin rpMU, uji' ce seMjiha. mpece, 
11^' y^apa Mope j 6peroBe? j 
HiimH rp^rn, hmih' ce seMJita mpece, 
Hhh' y/^apa 3iope j operoBe, 
Beti /^Hjewie 5^aro cBemiimejibif: 
CBemn Ileinap h CBemii HnKO.ia, 
CBeran loBan ii cbchih IIjiHJa 
H ca HBHMa CBemii IlaHraejiHJa; 
HtHM' ^o^a3H 6jia;KeHa MapHJa, 
PoHH cyse HH3 Snje^o Jiuu,e. 

National songs of the Serbians ed. by Vuk Slefanovid Karajic. 

Mili boze! cuda velikoga! 
Hi grmi^ iV se zeml'a trese 
ir udara more u bregovef 
Niti grmi^ ni£ se zeml'a trese, 
NW udara more u bregove, 
Vec dijele blago svetiteM: 
Sveti Pefar i sveti Nikola^ 
Sveti Jovan i sveti Ilija^ 
I sa nima sveti Pantelija ; 
Nim* dolazi blazena Marija^ 
Roni suze niz bijelo litse. 

Remarks. 

The Serbians, as far as they belong to the Greek church, 
write their language in the Cyrillian character, the Roman 
Catholics in Roman letters. This language, to which the 
Khorvatian (Croatian) is nearly alhed, has neither the vowel «, 



SERBIAN. 153 

nor the two Old Slavonian surd vowels L % and 'B w, of which the 
former appears only in combination with the characters n and /, 
indicating their soft pronunciation, which we render by the pa- 
latal line, n /', as in all the other Slavonic languages. About the 
palatal modification of the vowels we refer to the Old Slovenian. 
In Serbian the letter p is often used as vowel and forms syl- 
lables, although it is not distinguished in writing from the 
consonant p. We think it the more necessary to mark the 
vowel r by the little circle underneath, as it even occurs be- 
fore other vowels , for instance gfote umro in three syllables. 
In writing c s z for 4 lU Hv we have the advantage to 
be in concordance with the latin alphabet used already in 
the country. The letters h and "P) express very nearly 
the same sounds as c and dz in the Polish alphabet, where 
we refer to for our transcription by c and j. The signs 
^I (:= ^VK J j) and F) (j ) have been added by Vuk Stefanovic. 
The pronunciation of X comes nearest to A, as it is written 
in the latin alphabet; but in many words of Serbian dialects 
it is either omitted or replaced by other consonants. 



154 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



RUSSIAN. 



1 Bi y 

ji e II e K) 

all eii oil yii iiii liH 



^^(^ 



Palatalised vowels : 
ja je ji jo ju 
aj ej oj vj jaj jej 
(i, v) 

( ) 

Hard vowels : a o u 

Soft vowels: e e i 



K r 


" 


X r(^ 


T 


- 


III VK 


^ 

■j(m) ,71, 


11 


C 3 


n 6 


IVl 


(*) « 


\\\, (o) 




lb T\^h lib 


Cb 3b Ai, 


(nb 6b Mb pb Bb) 


^. ^ 


- 


X r 


c - 

t ' 
i d 


- 


s z 


n 


s z 


p b 


m 


(f) ^ 


sc (e) 




Palatalised consonants: 


t d' n s 


- r 


(P b' 


m V 


■ r) 



r I 



Specimen. 
Bo /i,Hii Tb Bbim.10 OTi> Kocapa Afirycxa noBO.ii.iiio, c,zi,'fe.iaTb 
neponncb no Bccii 30i>i,/iii. Cifl noi)oniicb (Jbi.Ta nopnafl bij npaB.iOHie 
KfinpiiHia Ciipido. II noui./{ii Bcb BmichiBaTLCii, ba>K,^,biii bt» cboii 
ropo/i,T.. Iloiuoji^b TaKHvc ii Iocii*Tb Hs-^b ra.iiMeH, iistj ropo/i,a Ha- 
sapexa, b'b Ij,T,eio, B'b ropo/r.-b ,ZI,aBii/i,OB'b, iiasbiBaoMbiii Biio./iooM'b, 
noToiviy »iTO oii-b ^biJi'b ii3t> ,zi,OMa ii po/i,a ^ZI,aBii^T,OBa, BniicaxbCH 
CT. MapioK), o()py'JCHiioK) ejwy iKOHOio. KOToi^aa dbijia ^epcMOHHa. 
B'b 6biTiiocTb iixT. xaM-b, iiacxyniijio Bi}CJ>Jii po/i,HXb eii. II pc- 
/i,Hjia cbiHa CBoero nepBCHna, h cnojieiiajia oro, ii nojioaxH.ia cro 
B'B flcjiit; noxomy mxo ho ^bijio iiM'b M'Jbexa Bt rocxuHHiii^li. 

Ev. Luc. 2, 1 — 7. 



RUSSIAN. X55 

Vo dm tje vislo ot Kesarja Avgusta povelenije^ sdelat' pere- 
pis' po vsej zeml'e. Sija perepis hila pervaja v pravl'enije 
Kvirinija Sirijeju. 1 posli vsje vpiswatsja , kazdij v svoj gorod. 
Posoi takze i Josif iz Galil'eji^ iz goroda Nazareta^ v Judjeju^ 
V gorod Davidov, nazivajemij Vifl'ejem^ potomu cto on bii iz doma 
i roda Davidova^ vpisatsja s Marijeju , ohruconnoju jemu zenoju^ 
katoraja hila heremenna. V hiinost' jij tam^ nastupilo vremja 
rodit' jej. 1 rodiia sina svojeyo ijerventa^ i spel'enala jeyo^ i 
poloziia jeyo v jasli; potomu cio nje biio jim mesta v gostiimite. 



Remarks.^ 

The pronunciation of the Russian has gradually deviated 
very much from the Russian orthography. It would therefore 
be useless to transcribe Russian words literally. The Russian 
vowels especially are subject to varying pronunciation, f. i. 
a = a, e\ 3 = e, e; -h or e = e, e^ o, je^ je^ jo-, i = ^, ji-, 
o = 0, a; ill or wfi = y, ij^ oj\ and thus the Russian 
alphabet as we have given it above, only refers to the re- 
gular and original value of the letters, not to their many 
later modifications. We agree with the best Slavonic scho- 
lars in transcribing the Russian letters according to their 
pronunciation and not to their character. The two characters 
e = -3 and -fe were no doubt originally the same as the Old Slove- 
nian c (a) and +, i. e. ^ or ^ and e. But since the pronunciation 
of -fe had in certain combinations passed into e, both signs 
were frequently interchanged. In order to economise our dia- 
critical signs we write e instead of e, keeping the diacritical 
point merely for e^ which is of much less frequent occur- 
rence. It might even be doubted, if the distinction of e 
aud e would be at all indispensable and practically conve- 
nient. The original value of n = Ji is mostly preserved 

* Miklosich, Vergleichende Lautlehre d. Slav. Spr. 1852. Bohtlingk, Bull, 
hist, philol. de TAcad. de St. Petersbourg. torn. IX, p. 37 ff. 

L2 



156 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

in the beginning of words and after vowels; i = i occurs only 
before vowels. As in the Old Slovenian we transcribe the pa- 
latalised vowels by prefixing the letter y, and employ the same 
sign for the affixed ii. We follow in this respect only the ge- 
neral use of those Slavonic nations which employ Latin cha- 
racters. It has appeared convenient not to transcribe at all 
the two signs b and t., which in Russian do not form any 
more a distinct articulation , but only indicate the preceding 
consonant to be either palatalised or not. As we transcribe the 
palatalised consonants by adding the palatal line, we do not 
require any other sign for t. After gutturals the sign b does 
not occur and their pronunciation before the soft vowels is 
hardly more diflferent from that before hard vowels than in 
any other language; we, therefore, do not express any pala- 
talisation of gutturals. The consonants of the palatal row are 
not capable at all of a second palatalisation , or it is here at 
least so week, that its existence is denied by several scholars. 
We may, therefore, conveniently omit it in our transcription. 
It has also been doubted, whether the labials and r are ever pa- 
latalised, and this palatalisation, if it ever exists, is at all events, 
as far as I can perceive, much weeker than after the dentals. 
It may, however, be indicated where according to the Russian 
orthography the sign b is still written behind them. The guttural 
or hard .i I of several Slavonic languages, which is pronounced 
with an energetic depression of the middle tongue and a simul- 
taneous raising of the behind part of the tongue at the guttural 
point, differs so perceptibly from our common Z, ^s to claim a 
special sign, and as the character i for this letter is already 
generally used in the Polish and Serbian writing, we can not 
hesitate to adopt it also in our transcription. The palatal line of/' 
may be dropped. The letter r between vowels ceases to be explo- 
sive and becomes the soft fricative which we write/. The letters 
Y * o only occur in Greek words, v with the double pronunciation 
either of * or v, which we render by these two respective signs. 



CHESKIAN (BOHEMIAN), 



157 



CHESKIAN (BOHEMIAN). 



a a 
e e u(6) 

i i y y u ou(u) 

I r 

ja jd je jiji 

(ij 4i ^J V V oj «i;' w yj w 



k(g) 


- 


ch h 


c - 


- 


s z 


C 

t d 


n 


s z 


p h 


m 


00^ 



d' 



I r 



a a 



u 



% I It u u 

I r 

o o 

ja jd je ji jl 

«;' «;' ^j V V oJ oj ifj ij IJ 

Hard vowels; a o ic y 
Soft vowels: e i 



^(9) 


- 


X h 


c - 
t - 
t d 


- ■ 


s z 


n 


s z 


p b 


m 


Cf) « 



t' d' 



J 
I r 



Specimen. 



Tesme se hlahou nadeji, 
Ze se vrdti zlate casy^ 
Ze se nam zas vyjasneji 
CesM Jiory , ceske hlasy. 
At jen cesky sat se nese^ 
Muzne hdji mravy ddvne^ 
Nade vsecko ono slavne, 
Pravoceske: 



Transcription. 



tesme se hlahoic nadeji^ 
Ze se vrdt'i zlate cast, 
Ze se nam zas vijasneji 
Ceske hori, ceske hlasi. 
At' jen ceski sat se nese, 
Muz he hdjl mravi ddvne, 
Nade vsetko Ofio slavne^ 
Pravoceske: 



158 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



Milujme se^ nedejme se, 
Vyhime se, napime se^ 
Milujme^ napime se, 
A pak vyhime se. — 
Amen^ rac to Boze ddti! 
Oroduj za nds^ svaty Vdclave, 
Vejvodo Ceske zeme ! 
Milujme se etc. — vyhime se. 



Milnjme se^ nedejme se, 
Vihime se, napime se^ 
Milujme^ napime se^ 
A pak vihime se. — 
Amen, rac to Boze ddti! 
Oroduj za nds: svatz Vdtlave^ 
Vejvodo Ceske zeme! 
Milujme se etc. — vihime se. 



Dokud V nds krev otcu plyne, 
Hrud zahrivd^ ruce sili: 
Sldva ceskd nezahyne^ 
Mlavu ztyci lev nds hily. 
Tak jako medvedum v Use, 
Neprdtelum hudem hrdti, 
Oni hudou tancovati, 
Az zapejem: 
Milujme se etc. — vyhime se. 



Dokud' V nds krev ottu pline^ 
Brud' zahrivd. rute sill: 
Sldva ceskd nezahine, 
Mlavu ztlcl lev nds hilt. 
Tak jako medvedum v lese, 
Neprdtelum hudem hrdtt, 
Oni hudou tantovati, 
Az zapejem: 
Milujme etc. — vihime se. 

Hussite song. 



Remarks. 

Although the vowels y and y are in modern pronunciation 
scarcely distinguished from i and f, yet we have not conceived 
ourselves authorised to give up in our transcription this dis- 
tinction, which, besides being historical, is moreover still pre- 
served in several phonic combinations as well as in the general 
pronunciation of certain dialects. The single i is frequently, 
especially in the beginning of words, pronounced like ^i, by 
which signs we transcribe it in this case. The long o has 
changed into u and is now written w, which writing we have 
preserved as both concordant with pronunciation and etymo- 
logy. The vowels r and Z are in the Cheskian alphabet not 



OHESKIAN (BOHEMIAN). 159 

distinguished from the corresponding consonants. We dis- 
tinguish them , however , by our usual diacritic sign. 

The letter g has been regularly (except in foreign words) 
replaced by h both in pronunciation and writing, which change 
we must adopt in our transcription. Also the letter / is of 
foreign origin but has been introduced in a few native words. 
The palatalised consonants n t" ct we mark by the palatal 
line n t' ct . The palatalisation of r has in Cheskian as well 
as in several other Slavonic languages, passed into a slight 
assibilation , coming up to a combination of r and f , for which 
we have preserved the national transcription by r. The pa- 
latalisation of consonants is in Bohemian sometimes marked 
above the following vowel (tesme, nadeji^ muzne, instead of 
t'esme, nad'eji^ muzne) or even sometimes not marked at all 
(v7Yitij oni instead of vrdt'i^ ohi). We do not follow this irre- 
gularity. 



160 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



POLISH. 








a kg 


- 


ch(h) 




e cz dz 


- 


3 

sz z 


J 


do c dz 


- 


- - 




i y u t d 


n 


s z 


r i 


e a c dz 


- 


/ t 

s z 




ja, ia je^ ie ji, i jo, io jit^ iu jq, ie ja, iq P ^ 


m (f) w 




jaj^iaj jej^iej n rz I ^ 1} w m f 


«y ^j V oj 6j uj yj szcz §6 (a;) 


a kg 


. 


X W 




e c J 


- 


8 Z 


J 


e t d 


- 


- - 




i i u t d 


n 


8 Z 


r i 


e ' ^ j 


- 


s z 




ja je ji jo jo ju je jo V ^ 


m 


(f) ^ 




jaj jej n r t { l? v m f 


«;' ^j V OJ 9J ^i ij sV sc 


(k 


) 





Specimen. 

I stalo siq, w onez dni wyszedi dekret od Cesar za Augusta^ 
ahy popisano wszystek swiat. Ten popis ^pierwszy ^ by I od 
stai'osty Syryjskiego Cyryna. 1 szli wszyscy ^ ahy sie popisali^ 
kazdy do miasta swego. Szedi tez i Jozef od Galilei z miasta 
Nazaretliii^ do Judskiej ziemie^ 'do miasta Dawidowego, ktore 
zowiq Bethlehem: przeto iz byt z donm i pokolenia Dawidowego^ 
ahy byi popisan z Mary a poslubiona^ sohie maizonkq^ Mora byla 
brzemiennq. Ev. Luc. 2, 1 — 5. 



I stalo se^ V onez dni visedt dekret od Tesara Augusta^ abi 
popisano vsjstek svjat, Ten popis pjervsi, bit od starosti SiriJ- 



POLISH. 151 

skjego Tirina. I sli vsisti^ ahi se popisali, hazdi do mjasta 
svego. Sedi tez i Josef od Galil'eji z mjasta Nazaretu, do 
Judskjej zjemje^ do mjasta Davidovego^ More zovjo Betl'ehem: 
preto iz bit z domu i pokol'enja Davidovego ^ ahi Ml popisan 
z Marijo 'posluhjono solje malzonko, Mora hiki hremjenno. 



Remarks. 

About y = i see above p. 54. The distinction in the Polish 
orthography between ja^ je etc. in the beginning and ia, ie etc. 
in the middle of words has neither an etymological nor pho- 
netic reason, and we write therefore indistinctly as in all the 
other Slavonic languages ja , je etc. In the middle of words the 
Poles use to write i instead of ji) we write ji according to the 
pronunciation. As for the palatal affixe j see above. The h 
only occurs in words taken from the ^Small-Russian^. The / 
likewise is of foreign origin. The consonants 6 dz s z are 
palatalised dentals, the palatal affix of which has been assi- 
bilated and the principal consonant assimilated to this assibi- 
lation. We are of opinion that the Polish 6- resembles the 
palatal s (s) of several ancient languages; but as identity of 
both cannot be proved, and as moreover the Polish sibilants 
are of a dental and not, hke the other, of a guttural origin, 
we have preferred to adhere in our transcription to the native 
orthography as closely as possible: and as the palatal line in 
our alphabet has another meaning , we have written c s z and 
accordingly also ;' for the Polish c s z and dz. In doing so we 
are the more justified as the diacritic sign ' has been employed 
in Serbian already by native scholars for the same purpose. 

On the other hand it would be a great simplification of 
Polish orthography and at least a great orthographic improve- 
ment for scientific purposes, if the irrational, complicated and 
erroneous compound signs cz sz szcz^ as well as the more ra- 
tional writings, but which are against other rules of our 



162 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



trauscription , dz c dz^ might be given up and replaced by the 
simple and rational signs c s sc j t d. The transcription of 
r and the other palatalised consonants has been discussed 
above, as well as that of the guttural I. The palatal line of /' 
may also here be dropped (see above p. 156), I being always 
palatalised where it is not guttural (i). The vowel 6 has a 
very closed pronunciation approaching almost w; we write it 
p, which in our genen],l alphabet comes nearest to it. Again 
the vowel e sometimes approaches very closely ^, and is written 
in these cases by careful writers e; we have to render this 
pronunciation by our e. 



S R B I A N (High-Lusatian , Wendic) 
according to different Serbian writers. 



a 

e 

e, e 6 

i y^e u 


k 

c,tz,cz, 

isch 

c,cz,z 

t 


(9) ^ 
dz,dz 

dz,ds 
d 


ja je je ji jo jo ju 


c,c,cz^cz 


dSytZyt 


oj ej ej ij oj 6j uj 


p 


b 



m 



ch 
SySch 



(/) 



71 r ljj-il,l p h V m f 



h 

Z,Z 



VyW 



r 1,V3 



^a je je ji JO JO JU 
oj ej ej ij oj oj uj 



k 


(9) 


c 


J 


t 


(d) 


t 


d 


c 


(i) 


p 


b 



nrt'phvTTif 



r i 



SORBIAN. 163 

Remarks. 

The pronunciation of the vowels written by the native Ser- 
bians e and 6 approaches very near that of i and u , although 
it seems not to be identical with it. We distinguish them, 
therefore, also in our transcription in writing them e and p, the 
acute ' being against the principles of the Standard alphabet (see 
above p. 47). For the same reason , we must replace the signs 
ch and y by our ^ and /; but we keep the character ^, although 
it is mostly pronounced as w and has preserved its original 
value only dialectically. About c see above our remarks on 
the Polish alphabet. The letters which we have renderd by 
d and j are distinguished as peculiar sounds by Tecelin, Seiler, 
Jordan and others. Miklosich, however, does not mention them 
at all. The letters g and / appear only in foreign words. 



164 



JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 



RUMANIAN (Walachian). 







Cyr 


ill 


ian letters. 






a 








K 


r 


- 


X 


- 


e i3 


o 






H 


¥ 


- 


in 


m 


L ^ 


y>^ 






Tjin 


A 


n 


c 


Z,3 


(^) 








^ 


- 


- 


- 


- 


i ^ 








n 


B 


m 


^ 


B 


ai ei ii 


01 ai ^1 


Jbi 




Ml, 


(^) 






a^ ey i^ 


0^ ^^ T>^ 












ia ie io 


i^ ea oa 












ea^ ei^ 


01^ 

















p Jl 



Mixed letters. 



e 


b o 




i 


i 


a 


(0 






i ^ 






ai ei 


etc. 





K 


r.g 


- 


H 


v,S 


- 


t 


d 


n 


^ 
II 


B,b 


m 



s z 

^ B 



Jl 



ui, 



Etymological alphabet. 









a 








e 









i 








/^ 


— 


a 


e I 


6 1 


L 


= 


a 

I 


e I 

u 


Q ' 






ai 


el 


etc 



c,ch 


9^9^ 


- 


h^ch - 


c,ci 


9^9^ 


- 


§->^ J 


t 


d 


n 


s z^ 


t,ti 


- 


- 


- 


P 


b 


m 


/ ^ 


St,SG 









z,d,di 



' 




RUMANIAN. 








Stan 


dard 


al 


phabe 


t. 






a 




k 


9 


- 


Kx) - 


e 


e 




c 


a 


- 


s z 


% 


i u 




t 


d 


- 


- 


(V 






t 


- 


n 


s z 


I ii 






V 


h 


m 


f ^ 


ai el 
au eii 


il 01 ui ii d 

L. L. 

iu oil (m) eii 




St 


sc 






la le 


10 m ea da 












eau elii olu 













165 



Specimen. 

Cyrillian letters. 

Uli a *0CT ;^n 'diAejie a^e.iea, einix-a nop^riKa 

4,e.ia Kecap A^r^^CT, ct* ce CKpie Toart .i^Mea. 

AneacTTj cKpicoape ;^nT^i c*a ^^k^t, ^OMniii/^ ;^n 

Cipiea Kipine^. Uli Mepyea toii,! cl ce CKpie, 

' *ie-Kape ;^n 'lexaTea ca. Ev. Luc. 2, i - 3. 

Mixed letters. 

lUi a *ost in zi.ie^e a^eaea , einit'a nop^nka de Aa 

Kesap A^g^st, si> se skpie toafB Anvnea. A^ieastt 

skpisoape intii^ s'a ^^ki^t domnind in Sipiea kipine^. 

Illi mepgea toiJ,i sb se skpie, ^ie-kape in letatea sa. 



Etymological writing. 

S^ a fost in dilele acelea , esit'a porunca de la Cesar August^ 
sd se scrie tote lumea. Acestd scrisore dntim s'^a fdcut, dom- 
nind in Siriea Cirineii. Si merge toil sd se scrie ^ fie- care in 
cetatea sa. 



166 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

Transcription. 

Si a fost in zilele acelea , esit'a porimka de la Kesar August, 
se se skrie ioaU lumea. Aceaste skrisoare intiiii s'a fekut, 
domnind in Sine a Kirineu. Si merjea toti se se skrie ^ fie- 
kare in cetatea sa. 

With accents. 

Si a fost in' zilele acelea, esiVa porunka de la Kesar Aiigust^ 
se se skrie todte lumea. Aceaste skrisoare intim s'a f{kut^ 
domnind in Siriea Kiri^im. Si merjea- toti se se skrie ^ fie- 
kdre in cetatea sa. 



Remarks. 

The Rumanian language which is principally spoken in the 
Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and also in Tran- 
sylvania and some isolated neighbouring districts, originated in 
the Roman colonies of ancient Dacia, and has preserved^ not- 
withstanding many foreign admixtures, an essential Romanic 
character. It was written formerly with CyrilHan letters, 
which, however, in modern times have been replaced by the 
Roman, being less heavy and more convenient for Euro- 
pean literary commerce. The introduction of the Roman 
letters is owing to the endeavours of a number of native 
scholars and extends already even to the newspapers. We 
may predict that it soon will be generally adopted. It is the 
more to be regretted, that it is just the most learned of these 
reformers of the Rumanian alphabet, who have encumbered this 
reform with unnecessary difficulties by following, instead of 
the phonetic principle — which prevailed in the Russian -Ro- 
manic alphabet — an etymological. Whilst most other nations 
justly endeavour to render their orthography as much as pos- 
sible accordant with the successive changes of pronunciation 



KUMANIAN. 167 

and to avoid thereby such inconveniences as are most con- 
spicuous in the English orthography, the Rumanian scholars 
have generally attempted to bring back the modern language 
to the old Roman orthography given up long since so far as re- 
gards pronunciation. They write e. g. the vowel i (in their 
Russian alphabet ;^) by five different signs, viz. a e t 6 u 
and the vowel e (!>) by « e i on according to the supposed, 
yet often problematic, origin of these respective vowels from 
a latin a e i o u. 

Trying to introduce a doctrinal orthography of this kind 
into common writing, would soon cause general confusion. 
Wherever a rich and widely diffused literature does not protect 
an orthography differing from the pronunciation, a nation has 
no other corrective for its orthography than its innate feeling 
and its living pronunciation; you cannot force upon the people 
the result of learned researches^ which they can neither ap- 
preciate nor understand. Others indeed go not so far; they 
follow the simpler principle of preserving for those sounds, 
for which the Latin alphabet has no particular letter, the Rus- 
sian signs; but thereby they surrender the homogeneity of 
writing and its evident advantages. We have above registered 
the Russian Alphabet, a mixed and an etymological Alphabet, 
and have selected the specimens accordingly. For linguistic 
works the notation of the accents of words would be valuable; 
we have noted them in a second specimen to show how easily 
they combine with our transcription. 

A remarkable peculiarity of the Rumanian language, espe- 
cially of the northern Daco -Rumanian dialect, is the for- 
mation (mentioned above p. 55) of an e vowel by the side of 
the /, which we find in the Slavonic languages. We know 
of no native Latin notation of these sounds, which could come 
under consideration; our transcription we have tried to justify 
at another place. ^ 

^ Transactions of the Berlin Akademy. 1861. p. 151. 



168 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

The Kumanian language is distinguished by a multiplicity 
of vocalic combinations; it is therefore necessary to mark, 
systematically and for the eye , the difference of the numerous 
monosyllabic diphthongs from the dissyllabic combinations, con- 
taining the same elements as the former. The vowels i and 
w, when following upon consonants at the end of words, almost 
lose the very body of sound, without disappearing entirely in 
pronunciation, being as it were only whispered. We consider 
these sounds as identical with the Old-Slovenian fc and 1>, to 
which we refer, holding the transcription there proposed i 
and u^ which moreover is already in general use in the country 
itself. We retain also the analogous Rumanian notation of 
the short unaccented i and u in the second place of diphthongs 
at, ei^ ii^ ot y ui^ it, au^ eu etc. (as m hmde, voinik, sui^ dau), 
in order to distinguish these diphthongs from the dissyllabic 
combination of vowels aiy oi^ ui (as in tairiy voire, suit, audit). 
From the same reason we note the serai vocalic short and 
unaccented i, e and o in the first place of the diphthongs m 
le %o m, ea 6a with the same mark of brevity (as in mrna, 
Meie, Moriiy lumea, toate), to distinguish them from the dis- 
syllabic ia, ie, ea, oa (as in scrie, Galilea, ploa). 

The notation c j s and z results from our general alphabet as 
well as ^^ which latter has the advantage of being is use already 
in the country; the softened d is rendered d by some authors, 
and is said to exist in dialects with the pronunciation dz; but 
the common pronunciation no longer distinguishing d from z, 
we prefer to omit in transcription the difference. 



OLD ICELANDIC. 



169 



OLD ICELANDIC. 



a a 




k 


9 


— 


h 




0) 




e e 6 




t 


d 


71 


■ 8 


z 


r 


I 


i i y y u 


u 


p 


h 


m 


P 

f 


d 

V 






aic ei ey 




X 














ja jo jo 


















ja jic 


















a a 




k 


9 


— 


h 




& 




e e g o 6 




t 


d 


n 


s 


z 


7' 


I 


i i u u u 


u 








« 


d 






e (or ai) o (or 


oi) 


p 


h 


on 


/ 


V 






au ei eu 
id id io 




ks 














ia iio 



















Specimen. 



Hljods hid ek allar 
helgar kindir, 
meiri ok minni 
mogu Heimdallar: 
vildu at ek Vcdfodrs 
vel framtelja, 
fornspjoll fir a 
pau er ek fremst um man. 



(Transcription.) 
Hlidds bid ek allar 
lielgar kindir^ 
meiri ok minni 
mogu Heimdallar: ' 
vildu at ek Valfodrs 
vel framtelia, 
fornspigll ftra 
dan, er ek fremst um man. 



Beginning of the Vgluspa {Edda ed. Munch). 



Remarks. 

The old manuscripts differ from each other in their ortho- 
graphy, which has been reduced to fixed rules only by modern 

M 



170 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

scholars. We have given above the alphabet, almost as it is 
written by Hask. Scandinavian editors usually write ja^ jo^ 
jo^ instead of the m, io^ io^ of the manuscripts, even where 
these diphthongs have grown out of the vowel % by the in- 
fluence of a following a or u (nom. pi. shildir the shields, ace. 
pi. skioldu^ nom. sg. skioldr for skioldur, gen. sg. skialdar'). Pre- 
mising that in all such cases the vowel i remained the pre- 
dominant, we propose to write these diphthongs respectively 
m, 20, id, in order to distinguish them from ia — ja, as in 
telia (to tell), telium (we tell), which might be written also 
telja^ teljum. It seems to us not improbable, that the letters 
ce and «*, which proceed from a and 6 before an i of tbe 
next syllable, ought to be considered as real diphthongs, 
id and 6i (like the Latin ae for az), although their actual 
pronunciation is that of e and o. With regard to the double 
e (/ and f), pointed out by J. Grimm as having existed in 
the old language, we prefer to follow the manuscripts, which 
give only one e. The characters P and d represent the hard 
and the soft pronunciation of the Enghsh th. 





WELSH. 




111 




WELSH (KIMRI). 




y 


^ 9 




ch h - 




a 


t d 


n till 


s (z) 


r rh 


e 






th ddjd^dh 


in 


i u 10 


p h 


m mil 


#;M f>'^ 


w 



a% ae aw ait oi oe ei eiv eu 
ia ie io iiv 



i 




k 


9 


- 


- i 


a 




t 


d 


n 


n 















u 


u 


P 


h 


m 


m 



s 

J 



(i; 



r r 
I I 

w 



ai ae au au oi oe ei eti eu 
m le 10 m 

Specimen. 

1. Bu lief yd yn y dyddiau hynny ^ fy^'^^d gorcliymyn allan 
oddi ivrtli Augustus Cesar , i dretliu yr lioll fyd. 2. Y trethiad 
yma a wnaetlipwyd gyntdf pan oedd Cyrenius yn rhaglaiv ar 
Syria. 3. A pliawh a aetliant i'w tretliu^ hoh un i'w ddinas ei 
liun. 4. A Joseph lief yd a aetli i fynu o Galilea, o ddinas Na- 
zareth, i ludea, i ddinas Dafydd, yr lion a ehvir Bethlehem am 
ei fod dy a thylwyth Dafydd. 5. I'w drethu gyd a Mair, yr 
hon a ddyweddiasid yn wraig iddo , yr lion oedd yn feichiog. 

Ev. Luc. 2, 1 — 5. 



Transcription. 

1. Bu hevid in i didiau hinni. vined qorrimin alan odi ur^ 
Augustus Kesar, i dreOu ir hoi vid. 2. / treBiad ima a 
unaeBpwid gintav pan oed Kireniiis in raglaic ar Siria. 3. A 

M2 



172 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES. 

fauh a aeOant i'u tre^u^ bob un i'u dinas ei hun. 4. A lose/ 
lievid a aeO i vinu o Galilea, o dinas Nazare^y i ludea^ i dinas 
David, jr hon a elwir Be^lehem am ei vod o dl a ^ilwid David, 
6. I'u dre^u gid a Mair^ ir lion a diwediasid in uraig idoj jr 
hon oed in vei^iog. 



Remarks. 

The vowel y is not the Slovenian hard or guttural vovrel i\ 
it is the obtuse and indistinct vowel which we have found in 
other languages as e^ and which we write here «, because it 
comes nearest to z, and takes its rise in most cases, though 
not always, in i. In modern writing every short i is usually 
written y. We write the diphthongs ta^ le, to^ lu, with the mark 
of brevity ^, in order to distinguish them from the dissyllabic 
combinations of the same vowels. The diphthongs ae and oe^ 
though often confounded with ai and oi, yet in pronunciation 
differ from them slightly; we therefore write them ae and oe. 
The aspirated liquids ^, w, /'/are peculiar to the Welsh, and 
we prefer to put the sign of aspiration over the letter instead 
of placing the full h after it, the aspiration being more closely 
connected with the liquid letter than the composition with h 
would indicate. The fourth liquid letter, viz. /, has likewise, 
besides its simple pronunciation, an aspirated one, expressed by 
doubling it, II. As in this case the I becomes at the same time 
a palatal pronunciation, the middle of the tongue touching the 
palatal point on the palate, and the aspiration passing on both 
sides of the tongue over the eye-teeth, it might be still more 
exact to render this letter by T; we omit, however, the pa- 
latal line, to spare a diacritical sign which is not absolutely 
necessary, there being only one aspirated t. The letter w is 
the vowel lo before consonants, and the consonant lo before 
vowels. The letter z occurs only in foreign words. 



HEBREW, 



173 



'^i HEBREW. 

Former pronunciation. 



a.t.u.a 

o 'o"o "o 



,ai 



u.atc 



V ^ 


- 


n 


- 


J 


J 


- 


h - 


- p 


- 


" 




- 


^ 


- 


X - 


D :) 


- 


XT 


" 


k 


g 


~ 


s - 


D - 


_ 


:s 


" 


t 


- 


- 


§ - 


n 1 


D 


D 


' 


-1 S 25 


d 


n 


s z 


D n 


O 


- 




i^ 


h 


m 


- - 



Later pronunciation. 










i I 


^ e 
e 


e 


V 


t< 


- 


n 


- 


- 


P 


- 


n 


J 


3 


•J 


- 


D 


- 


•a 


- 


~ 


':£ 


- 


- 


- 




W 


ir - 


n 


■H 


D 


D 


7 


- 


- 


- 


n 


n 


B 


3 


D 


D 


n 



e 
dad 

a 



-1 ^ 



t d 
p b 






u u u 





- 


h 


- 


X y 


- 


X - 


- 


§ 


- 


s s - 


n 


s z 


- 


3 


m 


f ^ 



w 



Specimen. 

: □";©."] ''^s-Sv HDn-ir:: D^"^■S^s^ m^) ainn ^DD'hy T^^^ '^r^'y)^ ^nh 



174 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

d\"i'Sj5 "^o.^^^t 6. : in.N Dv "ip_b-\-i>'i_ nni?-\n^^ nVS $<np "q^nSi 
c\"TSi^ it;x^^i 7. ♦°V-^^ ci-;^ |''2 \^'^nD >n;^) n^^jsn -ij-ina i>«»pi \n^ 
Syo -)ti;M D-^sn i"»:i^ i^^p-iS nnno ntrj^ n^sn ^2 S•^^^^, p^p-in-nt< 

: |D-\i^') i^p-iS 

Genes. 1, 1 — 7. 

Former pronunciation. 
1. Bi ra'ctsit hara^a Hldhim Ht ha samaim na nt ha mrs, 

ooo ooooo o ooo oo oo — 

2. Ua ha mrs haiatah tuhu ua huhic, ua rusk lal panai tahum 
ua ruy nldhim mar ar apt >al panai ha maim. 3. Ua iammar 
nldhim: iahi 'aur ^ ua iahi mur. 4. JJa iar>a nldhim nt ha 

oo o o'uo o ooooo oo 

mur 4zi tauh: ua iahdil ^ildhim bain ha mur ua bain ha rusk. 

o -o-^ooooo o eo oo oyto 

5. Ua iaqra>a nldhim la mur iaum. ua la rusk qara^a lailah: 

oo2oo oo oo o 7 ooyLo iooooo^ 

ua iahi >arb ua iahi buqr iaum mrad. 6. Ua ia^amar nldhim: 

oo o 00 a ± a oyl o o o o o o o 

iahi raai' bi tank ha maim, uihi mabdil bain maim la maim. 

O OJtOO oo7 o o o oo 

7. Ua iaias nldhim nt ha raqi>\ ua iabdil bain ha maim ^asar 

ooo oo o oo-i'ooo o o o oo 

mi-tart la raqil ua bain ha maim msar mi-'al la raqi': ua 

o oyiy oo-i oo o o 00 oo ooi'o 

iahi kin. 

o o 

Later pronunciation. 

1. Berets W bard' 'elohtm ^e-d hassdmayim ive^e^ hd'dres. 
2. Wehddres hdyeOdh dohu lodvohu^ wejosej 'al pe?ie dehorn 
wertlj ^elohtm meraj[dfeO =al pens hammdyim. 3. Wayyomier 
^elohrm: yeht '6r loayeht 'dr. 4. Wayyar^ ^elohlm =>e^hd'6r kl 
tov; wayyavdel ^eldhtm ben hdwr uven hajosej. 5. Wayyiqrd' 
^elohtm Id'or yom^ welajosej qdrd' Idildh; wayeht lerev wayehi 
voqer yom ^ejdd. 6. Wayyo^mer ^elohtm. : yeht rdqU be^oj 
hammdyim, unht mavdtl ben mayim Idmdyim. 7. Wayya^as 
^elohtm ^eBhdrdqt' .^ wayyavdel ben hammayim mser mittaja^ 
Idrdqtl iiven hammayim nUer me'al ldrdqt>; waijeht jen. 

Remarks. 
The Hebrew writing of our books and manuscripts is re- 
markable as being composed out of two apparently hetero- 



HEBREW. 175 

geneous elements of a very different date and origin. The 
one element contains real characters, which, although their form 
was slightly altered after the exile, yet, as to their figure 
and alphabetic composition, belong no doubt to the oldest 
epochs of Hebrew, or perhaps even Semitic civilisation. The 
other element, the pointing, was added only about seven 
hundred years after Christ. By this addition no character of 
the old sacred text was altered; it only served to fix the tra- 
ditional pronunciation. According to the opinion now ge- 
nerally received , the old pronunciation did not differ from the 
modern one. The ancients, it is supposed , wrote only the con- 
sonants, and left all the vowels to be supplied by the reader. 
Our opinion is, that a mere consonantal alphabet would presup- 
pose by far too abstract a phonic doctrine on the part of its 
inventors , and , even if such a systematic separation of the 
consonants had been possible, there would have been no reason 
for not inventing corresponding signs for the other separated 
element, viz. the vowels. Moreover the first and most neces- 
sary requisite of every writing is its intelligibility, which could 
not be attained without written signs for the principal and 
most expressive vowels. We therefore consider the Hebrew 
alphabet to have been, like all the other old Asiatic alphabets, 
essentially syllabic, i. e. representing by each character a full 
vocal syllable. With this syllabic character of the Hebrew 
letters it is not incompatible, that the inherent vowel is occa- 
sionally replaced by another pure vowel following, or eclipsed 
by the influence of the accent of another vowel in the same 
word. The two characters "> and i represented in the old 
Hebrew, as in the other Semitic alphabets, the two vowels i 
and ic, being the two most remote from the vowel a , and there- 
fore the most important in writing. They were primitive 
vowels in many words, in which they are still pronounced as 
such, as in the roots i^t din^ ^^,^ sur^ or in the proper names 
lli^'j^ Sidim (SidonJ ^idcov^ i^^^ Siwi (Siyyon) ^uov. 



L 



176 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

Placed, however, before other vowels in the beginning of 
a syllable they represented also the semivowels y and w, into 
which, according to their nature, they usually pass in the 
Greek and Latin, and almost all languages. Yet, this se- 
mivocalic power is only a derivative and secondary one, the 
primary being always and even in the pointed writing its 
vocalic power. One might be inclined to attribute also to the 
letter f< a mere vocalic power in the primitive writing, con- 
sidering the frequent use of the ?< quiescens in the pointed 
writing, and comparing the letter yyy a in the analogous old 
Persian writing. But a further consideration disproves this 
opinion. It is as easy to prove that the letter yyy in the name 
of yy yyy £:T ^\>- >y^ ^ ^ Dariawus (y^^;^'}^ -, Darius) has no con- 
sonantic element, as to prove that the letter n; in S^^iiJ Saml 
2aovl (part, of Si^ti; saml) has no vocalic element. The Se- 
mitic s\ never takes a semivocalic power, nor is it an aspi- 
ration , but a slightly explosive consonant. The condition of 
the t^ quiescens is therefore totaly different from that of the 
•• or 1 quiescens. 

If the assertion is selfevident, that each system of phonetic 
writing must represent the most essential and prominent ele- 
ments of that language, for which it was originally intended^ 
we must presume, that in the language which was first written 
with this Semitic alphabet , only three vowels were necessary 
to make it intelhgible, «, i and u, as in the old Egyptian, old 
Persian, Assyrian, and likewise, though with a separation of 
long and short vowels, in the Sanskrit, the Arabic and other 
languages. We may be almost sure, that also the Hebrew 
language of the time of Moses and David did not yet distin- 
guish all the vocal shades, represented in the pointed system of 
the 7^^ century after Christ, but only the three principal vowels 
a, i and u. But the language of our oldest Hebrew texts suppo- 
ses already the separation of long and short vowels, which was 
indispensable for certain grammatical distinctions. Yet the old 



HEBREW. 177 

writing knows only one i and one u and no separate a. We 
must therefore suppose either that this writing was invented 
for a condition of the Hebrew language before the time, to 
which our historical knowledge of it reaches, or that it was 
taken from another people and therefore, from the beginning, 
was defective in expressing the Hebrew vowels. This dis- 
crepancy between pronunciation and writing necessarily in- 
creased in the space of perhaps 2000 years, the former always 
advancing, the latter being stationary, till the invention of the 
vowel-points brought then) both again together. The question 
now is, whether and how far our way of transcribing may be 
applied even to the oldest Hebrew text and its primitive pro- 
nunciation. We still have a certain number of unpointed 
texts of several other Semitic languages , the writing of which 
we may likewise suppose to be defective. The usefulness of 
a general and regular way of transcribing these texts as well 
as the oldest Hebrew, in a h'nguistical point of view, can 
scarcely be contested ; for a transcription offering to the reader 
only unreadable consonants is certainly as inconvenient as a 
transcription with more or less arbitrary vowels, of which the 
genuine are not discernible from the hypothetical. We may 
therefore be justified in proposing a transcription according to 
our views especially in application to the oldest Hebrew, for 
the interpretation of which we possess more ample means. 

The principal thing to be done in this respect is, to separate 
in the language the ancient phonic elements from the later. 

A later origin and introduction we attribute to all the fri- 
cative modifications of consonants (indicated by the non inser- 
tion of the dagesh lene)^ which are of mere phonic import 
without any grammatical signification. The age of the pro- 
nunciation indicated by the dagesh forte ^ which also serves 
to distinguish grammatical modifications, is more doubtful. 
Whilst in reference to the pointed writing we propose 
transcribing the dagesh forte ( as the Arabic tesdid) by 



178 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

duplication of the consonant, we should, as regards the old 
writing, prefer the transcription with the usual line of dupli- 
cation above the consonant. 

As to the vowels, the difficulty of a regular transcription 
is greater, owing to the defectiveness of the old writing. The 
gradual increase of vowels may be considered a general rule 
in most languages. The later origin and secondary value 
of the pointed vowels in Hebrew cannot be contested; this 
results also from the fact, that they no- where, like the old 
vowels ^ and ^ , distinguish different roots. The e and o vowels 
of the pointed system may still be traced back to their respec- 
tive primary vowels, and replaced by them without altering 
or obscuring the language itself. But it has already been ob- 
served, that the Hebrew language in all parts of the Old Testa- 
ment supposes the distinction of a short % and u as w^ell as 
of a long «, although they are not separately expressed. We 
must in consequence supply these vowels, where they are wanted. 
It is another imperfection of the old writing, that it does not 
indicate , whether the inherent vowel a or no vowel at all is 
to be pronounced. We find the same defect in the Old Egyp- 
tian and Habessynian writing, as well as in several modern 
Indian writing systems in which no (Sanskritic) virdma is used, 
and the nearest analogy occurs in the old Persian. W"e are 
thus at a loss to know, except by inference from the pointed 
writing , or from grammatical laws , or from foreign transcrip- 
tion, whether we have to read "^ as z, or as cd^ or as the semi- 
vowel I (y)^ and i as w, or as qu^ or as the semivowel ii (iv). 
In fact "^ was pronounced as i in nu7>V^ 'Alisqli QEltsdh) 'Elioa^ 
p>'^ Siun (Siyyon) ^itov, as qi in |0^p Qqinqn (Qenan) Kaivar, 
□■)i^o Mqsrqim (Misrayim) BleoQat/ii; as t (y) in I'nn^ Iqi^dqn 
(Yarden) ^loQdavog^ ]no Mqdiqn (Midyan) Madtccjii; and 1 as 
u in i^trjx 'Asur ('AssicrJ "^oooiq; -iV") Lud (Lud) yiovd-, as 
qu in liL'xr ?Asqu (^Esdu) ^Hoav^ ^yn Rqkiu (Re^u) '^Fayav; as 
u (tv) in n^2^D Ninq'uih (Nineweh) Ntvevl, ]V Iquqn (Ydiodn) 
^liovdv^ "^^S Liui (Lewt) AevL, 



HEBREW. X79 

It is evideut, therefore, that to make from any unpointed Se- 
mitic writing a proper and readable transcription, a previous 
knowledge of the language is indispensable. Modern researches 
have taught, that, among the pointed vowels, long — (a) 
takes its rise mostly in a, short — (o) in w, long -7- (a) 
always in a, short ~ {e) mostly in ^, -^ (e) in i or 
aiy — (0) in u or mi^ or in a degenerated a; ■>-;- and 1 
answer to the old heavy vowels i and u, ">— and "i to old 
ai and au; — (i) and — (u), as well as -^ sewci mobile 
take their rise often in old a. These general facts afford a 
general rule for transcription, without however superseding the 
special consideration of each particular case. Our specimen 
will best show, what is here meant. But it is important, that 
the reader should always be able to distinguish immediately 
the vowels added by the learned transcriber from those written 
in the original text. The former are to be indicated for this 
purpose by the little circle placed underneath. 

In transcribing the pointed writing, it is not less de- 
sirable to facilitate to the reader as much as possible the dis- 
tinction between the old and the later writing. Apparently 
this might be attained by treating, in harmony with the re- 
ceived view, all old characters, including ^ and ^, , as pure 
consonants, and the new points as the only vowels, e. g. ^3 
My^ v^\j^ Toqiyt ^ -I'^^n lidowr ^ nvj towv ^ i-iq^ iiwveyn. The 
reader, then, would in the transcription have simply to re- 
gard all consonants as representing the old writing, all vowels 
as representing the points. This mode of transcription, however, 
would not only offer to the eye a form of writing incapable of 
being read (nobody being able to pronounce combinations such 
as -^y, -owv) and therefore offensive in itself, but it would 
not even correspond to the intentions of the authors of the 
pointed system , who, according to our view, did not mean — 
as little indeed as the old writers themselves — to consider the 
•^ and ^. as consonants, which they never could have been. 



IgO SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

The notation ^— , ^, , *> — and i , differed from long — , — , 
— and — - , no longer in sound but only in origin. In tran- 
scription, however, the distinction is necessary; we, therefore, 
represent the combination of the ancient character and the 
points by t, u, e^ o, the simple vowels if long by 1,^ u^ e, o, 
if short by i, u^ e, o. The distinction between long and short 
vowels, although the authors of the pointed system neglected 
it, is the more necessary, as the diflference of quantity, at 
least in — and —, coincides usually with a difference of 
origin. The long — , being pronounced by those who used the 
points, and still by the Spanish and other Jews, as a very 
broad o, was indicated by the same sign as the short o, although 
the former originated in «, the latter in w; and the long ■— {§) 
taking its rise in a was not distinguished from the short — (e) 
which took its rise in i. We prefer , following other authorities, 
the transcription of long — and -^ hj a and d instead of 6 
and §\ and for the sake of etymology we represent ^ and — 
by 6 and e instead of o and c", the diacritical point not being 
indispensable. The shortest pronunciation of the vowels — , — 
and — , by which they lose — not indeed in reality, but in the 
laws of the Hebrew rhythmic system — their syllabic value, 
is indicated by the addition of a seivd. We have already in 
other cases expressed this extreme shortness, which amounts 
almost to a total absence of vocalic sound, by putting the 
sign of brevity above the letter; we therefore write «, <?", o, for 
—? "75 —• The same mark might be placed above the seivci 
mobile |, if this were not already sufficiently marked by the 
little circle. 

The vocalic organism of the Hebrew language at the time of 
the introduction of the points will in its remarkable regularity 
best appear in the schema given above. There we see, starting 
from the central vowels a, z, u^ in a vertical direction the weake- 
ned, in an horizontal direction the gradually strengthened vowels 
on each side in their regular position; and those signs, which 



HEBREW. 13 X 

have a double pronunciation (— , — , — , — ), are found by 
the side of each other, as are also on the other hand those 
different signs, which have the same pronunciation (— and 
"^—j -7- and ^ — 5 — and T, — and ^,). 

There is no distinction in the Hebrew writing between the 
sewcl mobile, which we write e, and the sewd qidesce^is, which 
we omit altogether, because it was not pronounced at all. 

In our specimen we have, for the sake of comparison wdth 
the old writing; retained the sign of j« ' in the beginning of 
words; being, however, there necessarily understood, it may 
be omitted as in the Arabic writing. The pa^aj furtivum, 
as indicating only the natural phonic transition from the vowels 
f, e,' u, 6 to one of the deep gutturals n, j;, n, does not want 
any transcription. The letter d. when it becomes fricative, we 
transcribe j(, since it was doubtless spoken nearer to the pa- 
latal point than n j. The guttural (emphatic) pronunciation 
of -J (arabic J^) and 55 (arabic u-^) is undoubted; we there- 
fore write t and s; to regard the former as a medial— on ac- 
count of the Arabic Jo — d (see below) — there is no reason. 
The ancient sound ^^ s was later split up into a deeper 
sound tr; and a clearer one tL', which latter approached very 
near to d 5, and therefore must have been spoken much hke 
the Polish s (see above p. 161). The signs j(, /, ^, <?, require 
no farther explanation. The accents of words ^ where it ap- 
pears useful to mark them, may easily be added. 



182 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 



SYRIAN. 



- O- 



a e ^ 



e I o u 



w 



-^ 1 


- 


(31 « 




i 


> 


- 


h - 




« ^-0 


~ 






- 


^ 


- 


I ' 




^ ^ 


- 


^-^ „ 


<^ 


hx 


9,7 


- 


^ - 


y 


^ - 


- 


.i - 




t 


- 


- 


s - 




^ ? 


V 


^ 1 


^ \ 


tfi 


d,d 


n 


s z 


T I 


^ wS 


>= 







p,f 


h,v 


m 


" 


w 



Specimen. 






V .0 > ^ 



)(31L^9 (TL.M090 .j.L0C(31^ ^▲.s] \.^ jinSa^^O . 010^1) O 810^ Zom 

1 0910 .j^siaJ joffLJ .joL^ r^jo o. .{..aIo ^..a^I ^^w^ |^.ifcy.Lo 
L^^ I (31.x w^i..so .j-A^^? )9(3iQj^ I^X li^o 4. .|?<nQj 
|.£CUL^^o .j.^fl.LaA| |9(3ial^ jsiX Ij^o 5. . poA^^ |9^aJ 



O y . O 7 ^ O 7^0 7 .0 



,fMk 1.^0^ ]f..S. ]0910 Mbk)9 ]o(310 .jJbl^ )i^ 

Gen. 1, 1 -5. 

1. Berisi^ herd' ^aloho' yo^ semayo' weyo^ ^ar>d\ 2. War, '6' 
hewo^ tuh webuh wej(emj(6' ial ^apai tehumo^^ weruieh ddl6h6> 
meraj[efd' >al mpai may 6'. 3. Wemar mldhd\- nehwe' nuhro' 
loahewo' nulir6\ 4. Wajezo' mloJio' lenuh'6> desapir wa/eras 
'aloho' heB nuhro' lej[esuj[d\ 5. Waqe7'd> mloho' lenuhro' nmomo' 
ivale^esuj(6> qero^ lily6> waheivo^ 7'ams6' wahewo' safro^ yaunio' j(ad. 



SYRIAN. 183 

Remarks. 

Besides tbe old points of the Syrian writing, we find 
in the manuscripts, since the 7^^ century, also the Greek 
vowels added to the Syrian letters in small figures, as we 
have exhibited them above. They represent the five vowels 
a, e, i, 0, «^, of which a is always short, o (= o, replacing 
an older long a) and ^ are always long, e is long, when united 
with w^ (as vowel-sign) or 1 quiescens, short, when placed 
without either, and u, always united with o (as vowel-sign), 
is sometimes long and sometimes short. The short J^ e re- 
presents in the language at the same time the short i; we follow, 
however, in this respect the indigenous writing, transcribing it 
by e. The want of an indication where an audible sewci is to be 
pronounced and where the consonant alone without any vowel 
is spoken, exists also in the Syrian writing. Tradition alone 
supplies this imperfection. In the modern pronunciation the 
feeble consonantal sound of ) ' is often dropped entirely, 
although the letter is still written, and the appertaining vowel is 
then immediately connected with the consonant preceding the ] : 
e. g. daloho' , is pronounced instead of deml6li6\ In such cases 
we propose to keep, for the sake of etymology, the sign ', 
but to place it over the vowel connected with it, writing e. g. 
ddloho\ The same letters represent in Syrian writing the ex- 
plosive and their corresponding fricative letters. Sometimes 
the former are indicated by a dot over them , the latter by a 
dot beneath; but usually those dots are omitted. In every case 
the transcription has to follow the pronunciation. 



184 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 



l5- 



L5~ 



ARABIC, 



c 



^ 



6 






C ° -• - - 



a a 

^ i 

u u 

ai au 



k q 

- M 

- d 
t ' d 

- b 



n h - 
I r 



f 



z - 
z ^ 



r I 
to 



y - o^ 



■ O^ )^ 3 






Specimen. 

^ V^A^=Ji ^iJ 1. ^ 

^^^-♦.xiuj, v^Aiib j^j.x^_j QjiAil 2. ^-j^JiA^Jli (^AP 2^ — ji >-^ 

O O* ^ «^^ ^ J, ^ ^ . w^ M ^ .> O JO.-0 J J ^ f*— i, O w, 

O ^J ^^J«^^^, , J.&J ^ 0J0,0> O-OPOJ-O^Oil 

^^j^ ^c ^JJ| ^vXi> 6. o^-^^J "^ ^♦.P^Ao ^ J.! ^^'SjO^U 



ARABIC. 135 



O 3^, ^, , o ^oS ^^, o o- 



^ S^ 3 O } ^ ^ .OW3 O ^ Ow3 ^ V' ^ w ^■^^ 3 3^ O ^ w »0 

3 3 0^ 

Suratu 'I baqarati. Bismi 'Udhi 'l-raKmdni d-raKtmi. 
1. Jdlika 'Z hitdhu^ Id raiha flhi hiiddn lil muttaqma^ 2. alla- 
dlna yumiinuna hi ^l yaihi, wa yuqlmuna 'l-saldta^ iva mimmd 
razaqndhum yunfiquna, 3. wa 'lladina ywminuna himd unzila 
ilaika ivamd unzila min qahlika, ica hi 'I d^ivati 1mm yuqinuna, 

4. Uldnka >ala hudan min rahhihim, wa uldnka humit 'I mufliUuna, 

5. Inna "lladlna kafaru sawdmn lalaihim a' and art ahum am lam 
tundirhum; Id ywminuna. 6. _X^ta7na Hldhu 'aid quluhihim^ wa 
'aid sainHMm^ iva 'aid ahsdrihim yisdivatun^ wa lahum 'addhun 
'adimun. 7. Wa mina 'l-ndsi man yaqulu : dmannd hi 'lldhi wa 
hi 'Z yaumi 'Z djiri^ iva md hum himu'minma, 8. yuj(ddi>una 
'lldha wa 'lladlna dmanu , iva md yai^da'una Hid anfusahum^ 
wa md yas'uruna. 

Remarks. 

Our only object here is the written language and its pro- 
nunciation, as it has been fixed very accurately for the Koran 
and faithfully handed down. This pronunciation is still fol- 
lowed by the Readers of the Koran, and is in use in a num- 
ber of Bedouin tribes. The manifold deviations of the mo- 
dern dialects have never been admitted in writing; and the 
pronunciation of the Koran is still everywhere understood 
and regarded as the best. When, however, in particular 
cases it is desirable to render a different dialectic pronunciar 

N 



186 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

tion by Roman characters, then it is necessary to determine 
first the individual pronunciation — as is done by Eli Smith in 
his appendix to Robinson's Palestine — and to transcribe it 
accordingly. 

Arabic writing, like that pronunciation which the Or- 
thoepists teach, distinguishes only three vowels, «, ?', %i^ — which 
may be long or short— and two diphthongs, ai and au. The 
latter have sometimes lost their second element in pronunciation, 

though in writing it is retained; f. i. -JLc, H^>o ioiai^ salauta^ 
are pronounced 'ala, salata. It is the same as with the 
I suhscriptum in the Greek, which is still written but not 
pronounced. This analogy will justify our writing in such cases 
even in Arabic — for etymological reasons — an i or ii suh- 
scriptum: 'ala , salata. In the Article al^ the vowel, when fol- 
lowing upon a vowel, is passed over, which, like other eli- 
sions, we note in the European manner by an apostrophe. The 
sign Madda -' is either a mark of the length of the vowel, 
and then to be rendered accordingly; or it represents at the 
same time ^ Hamza^ in which case this will have to be added : 

...iLci sanamnu. The perpendicular FatKa , also , is mostly only 
the sign of a long vowel. 

Hamza (see above p. 68) must necessarily be transcribed 
only in the middle of words; in the beginning its omission 
produces no ambiguity; we write therefore ywminuna^ but 
alladina instead of >alladina. Our sign of / for ^ shows its 
phonetic relation to the weaker ^ ^, and has moreover the 
practical advantage of being convenient before a capital letter 
in the beginning of names : ^Al^ ,'Akka. Of ^ = A' and ^ = q 
we have spoken above (p. 69), as also of the linguals or gut- 
turo-dentals -h^ Ji?, u^, c^, d^ d, s, z. With respect to the accu- 
rate pronunciation of the latter sounds, especially the medial 
Jo d, which hitherto by European scholars has been taken 
for a tenuis and therefore connected with the basis t (th^ t, % tj^ 



ARABIC. X87 

we refer our readers to a special treatise by the author, in 
which these questions are discussed at length. ^ It may be 
doubted whether -r is to be rendered by g or f , the former 
representing the older and purer, the latter the more general 
modern pronunciation ; we prefer the latter, for which we find 
an additional reason in the fact, that the foreign languages 
which have adopted this letter with the whole Arabic alphabet 
or in Arabic words, almost universally pronounce it/. The 
Tesdid " is a sign of reduplication of the consonant over which 
it is placed; in transcribing, the consonant itself is to be re- 
peated instead. The J asm ^ is of importance only in syllabic 
writing, showing the absence of a vowel; in transcription it 
requires no distinctive mark. In all cases of assimilation of 
consonants, the etymological point of view must prevail in 
transcription as it does in the native writing, the assimilation 
being generally self evident even for us. We write therefore 
radadtu, ajadti^ not radattu^ aj^atti. The article al ought to be 
always kept separate , according to the custom in all European 
languages; only, before the solar letters its assimilation, pro- 
ducing a closer connexion in sound with the following noun, 
may be marked by a line of connection. We therefore write 
al kitdhu^ but al-raRwi^ al-ndsu^ [to show the pronunciation 
arraUim^ annasic. The almost general extinction of the sound 
of 8 h at the end of words is no reason why it should not 
be noted there , as in the midst of words, by h. In the same 
manner, » at the end is to be transcribed h, when pronoun- 
ced so; but when spoken as ^, is to be written t. There 
is no difficulty in making this distinction, as the different 
pronunciation of » is determined by a definite rule. 

^ On the sounds of the Arabic language and their transcription. Publi- 
cations of the Berlin Academy 1861. 



N2 



188 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 



GE5EZ (ETHIOPIO), 



O h 


- 


- 


ch U 




H\o ^ 


*> 


- 


^ 




•n 7 


* 


- 


■\ 




e H 


R 


- 


U] 


e 


-p ^ 


m 


I 


^^ 


4 A 


T fl 


A 


a^ 


^ 


® 



Jca ga 

ka ga 

ta da 

ta da 

pa ha 



k'a 
k'a 
ra 

s 

Pa 
p'a 



na 
ma 



Classes 




a e 


12 3 4 5 6 7. 




a 


"n M> Vi, vi *a Vi v^ 




e 6 


ka ku kl kd ke ke ko 


2, 


u 


etc. 


ai 


ail 



Ka ha 

sa 
sa 
fa 



ya 

ra la 
toa 



Specimen. 

(DK.'Pl^ : je-A-f : ®;rA^'^ : ^^Ai^i^-h : *AJ? : (SXJ^'iZL^ : MH.A'flrfbC : 
JBP^^^ : c^^6«5^+ : <^.e :: ®^a : MH.^-flrfi>C : /S.eVb"i : -flCyj : ©'Pi : 
•flC/ If :: ©OiP- : >i^li?i'flffbG : ti^CH'i : "RcJi : Uj^^ : ©Z^AOl : >v^H.?^'n. 
rfbC : <^>\'nA : •aC'^'i : ©^^VflA : /^d^O^-^ :: ©fta^p- : >^^H.^^rfbC : A-AC 
n't : 6A+ : ® AK^^c^*^ : A.A.+ : (D^l : A.A.I' : ® A^di : (DV^l : aiPIA'^ : O :: 

Gen. 1, 1 — 5. 



1. Bak'addml gahera ^egzimheRer samdya wa medra. 2. Wa 
medrsa ntdstarn loa'tkonat deliita wat'elmat mal'elta k'aldt wa 

O O 4 O O 

manfasa 'eqzvaheUe^' yet'elel maUelta indL 3. Wa yebe 'eqzvabeHer 
layekun berhdn wa kona berJidn. 4. Wa re^eyo 'egzvaheUer laberhdn 
kama sandi tea falat'a ^egzvaheUer nuvkala berUdn iva md'kala 
felmat. 5. Wa samayo 'egzvabelier laberlidn 'data wa lafelmat 
lellta wa kona lelita wa fahUa wa kona maldlta mliada. 



ge;ez. 189 



Remarks. 

The Abyssinians have transformed the old Himiaritic writing 
into a complete syllabarium , divided into seven rov^^s according 
to the different inherent vowels. Five of them are pronounced 
with the long vowels c7, e^ f, o, il\ the first row, w^hich alone 
we have exhibited above, with a short a approaching in pro- 
nunciation to e, and the sixth either with the obtuse vowel e 
or without any vowel. This latter uncertainty has been ob- 
served already in several other languages (see above p. 178). 
To show the true character of the language, it is important 
to mark all the long vowels with the sign of length over them, 
although the first of them alone (a) has a short one (a) cor- 
responding to it. The sixth form of ^ and v:) (.e ye and (D* we) 
is also employed to express the short diphthongic i and u 
after vowels. The consonantal value of 3/ and ^o, in fact, dis- 
appears in this position, and it seems therefore justifiable to 
deviate in such cases from the indigenous custom, which is 
only a consequence of the syllabic writing, and to write in 
our transcription ai and aii according to the pronunciation in- 
stead of ay and aw. 

Amongst the consonants, the Semitic letters s, t^ are wanting. 
The sound of UU and of ti is at present the same. But the Am- 
haric palatal row, the forms of which are all taken from 
those of the dental row, shows plainly that I'l belonged to 
the dentals and was formerly pronounced s, and that lU in 
consequence corresponded to s. The same conclusion is ar- 
rived at from the palaeographical form of lu, as well as from 
etymological reasons. Two classes of sounds are not found in any 
other Semitic alphabet. One of them is the same as the Ossetian 
class of tenues (see above p. 140). Our transcription by k% t% 
etc. renders exactly the pronunciation. The other is a new 
local class , which may be regarded as a peculiar developement 
of the Semitic q. It is of a deep guttural nature, and palaeo- 



190 SEMITIC LANGUAGES, 

graphically derived from the next guttural class k^ g-i Xf ^S 
which latter is pronounced somewhat nearer to the palatal point. 
Some scholars call the letters of the former class diphthongs^ 
regarding the characteristic phonic element of the class as a 
vocalic u belonging to the following vowel. If we had here 
to deal with an augmentation of the inherent vowel, we should 
find the same augmentation as well after other consonants as 
after the gutturals. But it is only a peculiar deep gutturalisa- 
tion of the consonantal element, approaching in some respect 
to the sound of kiv^ gw^ etc. — in a similar way as the palatals 
^5 g etc. in other languages approach to the combination of 
%, gy^ etc. — without being identical, however, with the com- 
bination of the two letters k and lo ^ or g and ic^ etc., which 
would have been written "^nO), 7(D, etc. The transcription 
by k, g etc. would give a right hint to the reader, but ap- 
pears too artificial and unusual. We prefer therefore to 
write k\ g, j, k\ adding the guttural point over them. With 
regard to the letters 6 , H , ^ , it results from the whole system 
of sounds in this language, that they form a peculiar class of 
explosive letters, corresponding to the other classes. Their 
original pronunciation was probably t\ d\ t'\ and afterwards 
t, d^ t% the medial of which (d) passed finally into the pure 
fricative 0, as we find it pronounced in Amharic. 



AMHARIC. 



191 



AMHARIO. 



o 

Tl 

e 

T 



a 



a e 

o 

a 

e 6 

I u 

ai au cd clu 



4> 

m 



1 



fh In 

•\ 

Pi 

U) 

ft 

A. 



-w 



- 


- 


F 


- 


k' 


- 


r 


n 


r 


- 


t' 


n 


r 


m 



R Ji h 

X 

X 

s z 

s 

s z 

f - 






Specimen. 

Ij-A^ar : h'iJ^ : ?MP : A"J^^ : i4:h(f» : >vhm,irV : ^Ih :: Vl^ht^^"^^ 
1>A- : UVl^h-l-ri : "n-f- : A^+AP^ :: li'A^a)' : PA,?^ : ^j?^- : ^n"}^ 
ia4, : n?MP : lhA^(ir(<» : AZii^T^Or ; J'A : VlCh-f-h : eOi^ : '^t'PA^ 
>\'i^ : 104, : >i^.^U'^ : Q^^^T'^ .= l^Ai^dT : f]'iJ^ - Vl^fi-i-fi : ^V :: 

Isenberg, Amharic Gramm. p. 14. 

BaUawdrydt zaman haheta Krestiydn endeh ydlac andenat na- 
baracebdt huldcau ande lead audit nafsem ^esMhonu deras 
Krestiydndtem htdu ha Krestos kato altalayum huldcau ya 'Adam 
lejoc enda naharu basegd, huldcaum lao^dsdcau ydla Krestos 
yaVafu ^dVe^m enda naharu ^endehum hahdimdnot huldcau 
hdnde Krestos dclnu. 



192 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 

Remarks. 

The Amharic alphabet differs from the Ge'ez only by the 
accession of several new sounds, which by the inhabitants are 
called „Islamitic", being indeed for the most part Arabic sounds. 
To these belong especially the palatal letters cT, /, ?^, s, £, c\ 
all derived as to form, from the corresponding dentals. The 
sibilant in, which originally, as we have observed in reference to 
the Ge'ez, seems to have been sounded as s, has been divided^ 
as in Hebrew, into two sounds; the letter ai being confined 
to the sharper sound 5, which must have approached the Po- 
lish 5, and n being added to represent the deeper sound L 
The letter HS, corresponding in Ge^ez with the Arabic ^ K, 
had lost in Amharic its strong breath, being almost weakened 
to the sound of the simple U, h. In a subsequent time, there- 
fore, when Arabic words, containing the letter^, K^ were in- 
troduced into Amharic, a new Amharic letter was wanted to 
express this strong spirans, and "^ was added for this pur- 
pose. .We distinguish in consequence this new letter from the 
older one only by a diacritical point, placed under it, K. The 
vocalisation is the same as in the Ge'ez. 



OLD EGYPTIAN, 



193 






OLD EGYPTIAN, 



s.U 



cX: 



,^, 



D 



,y 



o 



0?n 

,1 



r"\ rn 



J ,1k,-=,T 






I] a (a) 
a (a) 

W i 

(j (1 i (I, e) 






t 

(t) 



p b 

(V) (b) 





h 


' 


® 




I 




(I) 


n 


s 


(n) 


(^) 




s 




Q) 


m 

i (nO 


f 



(I) 



194 HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 

( mMT^ .(gs l.gT=1.QS1 . 






A^AAA^ t I I i 



iWW.&M.-^J^-.g^-.I-^, 



i^L ^"T^^. /i^^f'.^^.l 



o 

AAAAM • 



jSisank (p^^-^ , 2eGcoyxig). Tdkrut(rh'^r\^ TayJXco&ig). Kanhut, 
Kamhatt (Kafj-^vorjc). _^siarsa (cuneif. J[sai/arsa, ttJ^Tl^^riN;, 
^BeQ^rjg). Klaupatra. Pianj (Oivcr/rjL;'). ahu (egOOT). ahet 

(eg^e^T). seha (ceSj). w (Som). «/ (^,CJ, ^.^,c[). ^za 

(IIHJ5- lie). Bar (bj;3). nehesi (negros and) nehesitic (negres- 
ses). mma (eJOH, JOJUL). kalm (K«^&). kent ((^OHT), 
yi;a^e (K^.Ke). awwA; (<^nOK). %r/j (^CWpft). 5/^a (CKc^J). 
matai (ll^.TOJ). A/i^t^ (gjSOTJ , g^,SjOTJ). /laiJ (8^^"). 
ta^ (Z^.Tqi). X'^^'H (^POTI). x§ft i^^T^)' ^'ii§^ (COTTH). 

Remarks. 

The hieroglyphic writing was at all times essentially an ideo- 
graphic writing, in which every sign expresses a whole idea 
and its corresponding words. It is true that we find from 



OLD EGYPTIAN. I95 

the oldest times a certain number of pure phonetic signs inter- 
mingled with them, but of secondary nature. Those are not 
intended to supplant the ideographic signs, but to suggest the 
proper words for them, to supply them with grammatical forms, 
and to write foreign names. Besides those two classes of 
signs , there are others of an intermediate nature. It is evi- 
dent that our transcription could not reproduce in any way 
this complicated system of writing ; we have only to deal with 
its phonetic part and to determine the different sounds of the 
ancient language. This task has been accomplished once al- 
ready by the Egyptians themselves, viz. by the Christian Egyp- 
tians, when they changed their indigenous writing for the 
Greek alphabet, adding to it six new characters for the same 
number of sounds peculiar to the Egyptian and unknown to 
the Greek language. The comparison of the old Egyptian 
with the Demotic and Coptic writing, and the examination 
of proper names transcribed anciently from hieroglyphics into 
foreign languages and vice versa, are the principal means 
to determine the old Egyptian pronunciation. They are per- 
haps not quite sufficient to remove all the doubts which are 
still entertained amongst Egyptian scholars, yet I may refer 
to what I have said on this point in another place. ^ 

The pronunciation of the Egyptian sounds, as given above 
in our transcription , is what the later Egyptians themselves 
gave to the hieroglyphic signs. They may have erred in some 
points, but those points are doubtful also for us, and it would 
therefore be advisable not to decide any thing in advance of 
this later pronunciation, before those doubts have been tho- 
roughly removed. We add here only a few remarks on spe- 
cial points. 

The short vowels rarely were written, but were regarded 
as conveyed in the respective consonants. The three vowel 

^ Konigsbuch p. 169 sqq. 



196" HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 

signs 4 , ^^, - 0, which are imperfectly distinguished in the 

corresponding Demotic, are not distinguished at all in the 
Coptic words, and in the transcription of Greek and Roman 
names. All three are rendered in the Coptic and in these 
transcriptions by the vowel «, with which e and o are regarded 
as identical. In the hieroglyphic writing, however, they very 
rarely interchange with one another. There ij is mostly 
found in the beginnig of words, ^^ mostly in the middle or 

on the end of words. The sign a seems to have expressed 

originally long a, which not seldom passed into o, as from 
the Demotic sign 2?7 = ^i representing the hieroglyphic ^'^ ^ 
as well as from the Coptic, might be inferred. To the same 
sign we find in Hebrew V often corresponding, and this letter 
might then also indicate rather the lengthening of the pre- 
ceding vowel, not the consonantal sound /, which seems to 
have been always unknown, as well as the sound oi ^ % in 
the Egyptian language. The sign \\ appears first in the end 
of the Old reign, and in the perpendicular form 11. This may 
have been an abbreviation of (|q, but seems to be used rather 
for the short i, in contradistinction to fj[|, which represents 
long I or e. Between _p and the later introduced sign <2, both 
standing for u^ there is no difference to be observed. More 
seldom is -£\ , which perhaps was meant for long u or o. 

Almost all the consonants seem to contain originally a cer- 
tain implied vowel, or at least to unite more easily with cer- 
tain vowels then with others. We observe principally two 
classes of consonants in this respect, the one of which prefers 
to be followed by the vowel «, the other by u or ^. In this, 
too, we find the reason, why in later times the consonantal 
value of certain signs has changed through the influence of 
the following vowel. Especially the closed vowels u and i 
caused not seldom, as we know also from other languages, 
an assibilation or softening of the preceding consonant. 
Accordingly, we find A mostly united with a, '=:^3^ more 



OLD EGYPTIAN. 197 

often with u or i. To both corresponds k in Coptic and in 
Greek names, and d in Hebrew names. It is true that we 
find not seldom Hebrew p q for hieroglyphic ^; but this is 
as little able to prove, that the Egyptians had the merely 

Semitic sound of p, as the regular Arabic writing ^.hj»Xi 
Qleohatrah is to decide anything about the pronunciation of 
the Greek x or t. In the Demotic writing, the signs cor- 
responding to the hieroglyphic A and ^:z:::^ express indifferently 
the sound h^ and the union of either of them, with the demotic 
substitute for the hieroglyphic \v\^ expresses the Greek 7, which 
was pronounced kli. The demotic sign for '^^z:^, however, 
had in other cases also the sound of the Coptic letter (?, which 
itself took its form from that sign and was pronounced 1c or c. 
This proves clearly enough, that the hieroglyphic language 
did not know the sound of the Coptic (?. Instead of A we 
find sometimes the sign ^ , and instead of ^^z^ we find also 
Sj which letter, however, by the present hieroglyphic scho- 
lars is generally confounded with /I\ (= 0). There is no 
single character in the Hieroglyphic nor in the Demotic writing 
for the sound of the medial ^, Avhich in demotic is sometimes 
written X2L i. e. "^ = nk (cf. also the hieroglyphic "^ 
for Hebrew p in the originally Semitic name of the Bubastide 
king Sisaq = Sisqnk). The characters a^ J, g » for t re- 
place one another often, though not in all cases. The fol- 
lowing characters <^^^ "^ , 4, which occasionally change 
with one another and sometimes also with the preceding cha- 
racters, show a tendency to duplication, tt Afterwards, they 
are inclined to pass into the sound of the Coptic Zl = ^, which 
Coptic sign indeed seems to come from the demotic form of hiero- 
glyphic J^. The original hieroglyphic pronunciation t was howe- 
ver known even as late as in Roman times. The same character 
IS found sometimes as substitute for the Hebrew :>', as in 
i^T^oi^] '-^^^'^9-> which has been compared with the Hebrew 
T^^ or n:i Sor^ Tyrus; but in these cases we must remember 



198 HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 

that by the side of the Hebrew -^ there is commonly founds as 
an older sound, the Aramaic to, as in j^^-^ib, Turd', from which 
also the Greek form TvQiog is taken. The choise of the 
hieroglyphic | was due perhaps rather to the decided emphatic 
pronunciation of id in such cases then to the assibilitated pro- 
nunciation of ^. The medial sound of d in foreign names was 
sometimes indicated in hieroglyphics by ^^, q| and in De- 
motic by ZI i. e. nt; this proves sufficiently that the Egyp- 
tian language did not use the simple sound of d. ^? p con- 
nects itself readily with a, D with u or t. The identity of 
the consonantal value in both results from the fact, that ori- 
ginally D was added to the less frequent ^ in order to in- 
dicate its phonetic value. There is no doubt about the sound 
of b, which before ti and i is mostly written J, before «, 
often &. The sounds of m and n have never changed by the 
influence of the following vowel; o = nu dropps its inherent 
u only in later times. The characters rn and I , although they 
rarely interchange, seem to be distinguished chiefly by the 
subjoined or inherent vowel, the former preferring a, the latter 
u or ^. The closed pronunciation of u and i caused naturally 
a strengthening of the breath in \. The same case happens 
with J and 0, the former of which was originally explained 
by the latter (as ^ by D, ^ and ^ by — h— or p, 5^ 
by fe or J), but diff'ered afterwards from it by inclining rather 
to a, wilst inclined to u or i. It is for this reason that 
in later times ^ passed more frequently from the pronuncia- 
tion of J into that of s. Amongst the characters representing 5, 
1 unites constantly with u. BM and c^iz: represent both s, 
but the former prefers a, the latter ti or i. There was no 
distinction between the two sounds r and I in the old sacred 
language ; it belongs rather to the later popular dialects. The 
lion _B^ as r, and more frequently as I occurs principally in 
foreign names since the time of the later dynasties. 

If, now, any one wishes to denote in the transcription this 



OLD EGYPTIAN. 199 

system of vocalisation, which might be compared with similar 
facts in the Old Persian and Old Slovenian languages and 
which was more in use at certain times then at others, he 
ought to chose one and the same diacritical sign, as, for in- 
stance, a point underneath, so as to distinguish from the others 
those consonantal characters which unite preferably with u or 
^, and at the same time to signalize their frequent change in 
later pronunciation through the influence of these vowels. 
The sound of /] might also be provisionally denoted by a with 
a point above. But, if we consider, that this distinction of 
the two classes of signs did not indicate originally a phonetic 
difference of consonantal value, that there was never a syste- 
matic uniformity in regard to their use, and that in any 
case several points of this question remain still unexplained, 
we cannot attach a great value to the introduction of this 
diacritical point in our transcription. Scientific exactness, 
however, demands, that all the vowels, added by the tran- 
scriber conjectu rally, are to be signalized as such to the reader. 
We write therefore, as in other languages, for supposed vo- 
wels «, I, u and if the vowel is quite uncertain, e. 



200 



HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 



COPTIC 

en o 'J3 (? - 

J (t) ot t 2^ 

z - 



^.J €J Ol A'T -er GOT 










ai ei 01 au eu ou 



n a 

(E) (t) (d 
(f) 



• 


8 






- 


* 




(X) 


- 


sy 






rr 


c 


p ^ 


(^) 


M 


^ 




(t) 



k g 

c - 

t d 
c 

p h 



/ \^; 


h 






- 


X 




kh 


- 


s 






n 


s 


r I 


th 


m 


f 




ph 



ps ^ 



U 



Specimen. 

Ific te eT ^,TlA^,cc[ i>en SHO?\een nTe f J0T2.e^, 
iert m egooT nTe kp'JotHC noTpo gnnne jc ^^,n 
IJZ.I50C ^.TJ eSo?\ c<^ neieST e i?\Hw eTZCw wwoc. 
2. 2^e ^,cf ^«3n c|)H eT ^.T<u^.cq noTpo nTe nj JOT5^^.J 
^.nn^,T xi^^p e neqcioT c^^ nejeST OTOg, ^.ni ze 
iiTenoTCWcyT mioq. 



COPTIC. 201 

lesus de et aicmasf j[en Bethleem ente ti ludea ^en ni ehou 
ente Erodes puro heppe is han magos aui ehol peieht e lerusalem 
euco emmos. 2. Ce af thon phe et aumasf puro ente ni Itidai 
annau gar e pefsiu sa peiebt uoh ani ce entenuost emmof. 

Remarks. 

The vowel H corresponds, like the hieroglyphic [j[|, to our 
long ~t or e, and CW to u or p. The compound OT for the 
simple vowel u is taken from the Greek ; and when this vowel 
forms the second part of a diphthong , it is , as in the Greek, 
rendered only by T; we have therefore to pronounce <5,t and 
eT as au and eu; but the diphthong oic^ which in the common 
Greek is not in use, was therefore written GOT, in order to 
distinguish it from the simple OT = u. There are on the 
other hand three diphthongic combinations with J, viz. <5,f 
ei, OJ = m, ei^ 01. It is probable that we have also to re- 
gard the combinations Hi , 'J3l and HT (hOT) , «3T (wOT) 
as diphthongs: ei^ 6i^ eu^ oic; and that even di and du, as well 
as the single a, existed in the language, without being dis- 
tinguished in writing , as a and a were not distinguished in 
the Greek alphabet. The single T occurs in a few Egyptian 
words, changing with J^ € or H ; it may then be expressed by u. 
The marks _!_, _z^, _!_ over consonants indicate usually the 
indistinct vowel, which we write e. The peculiar Egyptian 
sounds (? and Z show even by their form that the former 
springs from k, the latter from t (see above). It seems therefore 
that their pronunciation approached to the Polish sounds, written 
in our transcription by c and c. They were most frequently 
confounded with one another and passed afterwards into the 
softer sounds / and j , as K 5 T , II were pronounced in later 
times ^, J, b. The letters U and 2. occur only exceptionally 
in Egyptian words for K and T ; but they were usually pre- 
served where they occur in Greek words. The Greek letters 





202 



HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 



[)Q5 O5 c{) had by no means in the Coptic alphabet the 
pronunciation of our ^, ^, /, but represented the aspirated 
sounds kh, th, ph; they were almost peculiar to the Mem- 
phitic dialect and are often resolved into Kg , Tg , ITg ; while 
the Theban dialect usually keeps the tenues K, T, IT instead. 
The letter ^ , our j , belongs only to the Memphitic dialect 
and is replaced in the Theban dialect by g h. The letters 
"^ and ^ occur regularly only in Greek words; the two for- 
mer are sometimes met with in Egyptian words instead of the 
ordinary combinations KC and nc ; and ^ seems to have been 
pronounced like C, The sign T represents the syllable TJj 
which latter is often written instead. 



BEJA (BISARI, ETHIOPIAN). 



a 

e 



9 
9 

V 

d 
b 



m 



f 



y 

r I 

w 



Specimen. 
Bdbu iydne hoi, am ogauib gebhe. Am asogimek hok^ baruk 
inkertinia heb, Batuk otu dditui; nauatrit kitkai; nauatrit tike- 
tieky areyi hoki. Amkdkan^ baruh dine. Vra otaktu sdgal u- 
haPdit tdkat ehe^ shuU jilldida. 



BEJA. 203 

Remarks. 

The name of the Beja is well known to the Arabic writers 
of the middle age, and designates still the different tribes of 
the Bishari , Hadenduwa and other descendents of the Blent- 
myes of Roman times and of those Ethiopians^ whose chief 
town Herodotus calls Meroe. They dwell in the country 
between Egypt and Habesh , east of the Nile. The dis- 
tinction between long and short vowels in their language is 
not well developed; they are all rather long: which is more 
perceptible, when the accent of the word falls upon them. 
It is even doubtful, if the combinations ai, ei, oi^ au^ are to 
be taken as diphthongs or as two syllables. We prefer there- 
fore to leave all the vowels without indication of length ex- 
cept where sometimes a decidedly short i or u appears, written 
by us I and u^ and to use more frequently the accent, which 
falls for the most part on the last or on the penultimate syl- 
lable. It is remarkable, that we meet also in the Beja the 
peculiar class of deep gutturals , which we found in the Abyssi- 
nian language approaching to the compound sounds of kw, gw^ 
and which we write also here k and cj. On the other hand, we 
observe the cerebrals t and c/, specially found in India, and 
resembling in the Beja sometimes a combination of tr and dr. 
There is no p , as in the Arabic , and the letter / is very rare, 
and seems to be taken from the Arabic, as it mostly appears 
in words taken originally from that language. 



02 



204 



HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 













GALLA. 




■ 


Tutschek, 


Grammar 1845. 






i 


a 


d^d,a 




* 




- 


- 


e 


e 






k 




9 


c,q 




e 






tch(tz, 


t^i) 


dj(dz,dz) 


tsh 


i 


i 






f 




dy 


- 


o 









- 




d 


- 


u 


u 






t 
(P) 




d 
b 


t 
P 


i 


Standard 


Alphabet. 








d 


a 


a 




> 




- 


- 


e 


e 






k 




9 


t 


~ 


e 






c 




J 


c' 


\ % 


i 






{ 




d! 


- 


i 6 









- 




d 


- 


u 


u 






t 




d 
b 





- 


h - 




- 


ch - 




- 


/ 

^ 




f 


- - 


y 
- I 


nyU 


9 z 


r I 


m 


/ ry 


w 



- 


h - 


- 


X - 


- 


s - 


n 


- - 


- 


z 


n 


s z 


m 


/ - 



y 
- I 

r I 
w 



SpecimeD. 

Wak'ayo laftana^ goftako: ati na guba teza, ani zi d'alan 
taa. Ho haman nati dufe^ aka mukni adu narra k'abu^ ati 
hama nati k^abi, goftako^ gadiza na tai. Zi luamadetam ola^ 
zi wamadetani bula; batinana batte^ nan dabin^ bae zin dabu^ 
zababi na olcH. (Tutschek, Gramm. p. 84.) 



Remarks. 

The diflPerence of long and short vowels is not clearly de- 
veloped, except m a and a; the latter of w^hich Tutschek 
v^rites also a or a according as it is contracted from aioa or 



TAMASEQ. 



205 



aya. The tone of all the vowels at the end of words is some- 
times almost entirely lost, in which case he writes them in a 
smaller form. We prefer the same indication which we have 
already employed in other languages for the same purpose^, 
viz. the sign of brevity. The consonants in the third column 
are exactly the same as the corresponding consonants of the 
Abyssinian language, according to the pronunciation of a Galla 
man, whom I met in the Sudan', and it is, therefore, ques- 
tionable, whether this particular kind of tenues belongs ori- 
ginally to the one or to the other of these languages. The 
letter f of Tutschek seems to be our letter t\ inclining to the 
Polish c. We prefer the transcription by t\ corresponding to 
the soft sound cl\ Tutschek's dy. The sound of his n comes 
nearest to our n. I should not wonder, if also the sound t'^ 
existed in the Galla ^ although it has not yet been noticed. 
The letter, which Tutschek writes d' is almost the same as 
the d of the Beja^ except that it is perhaps still softer and 
seems to contain more of n than of r in its pronunciation. If 
there exists any corresponding t^ it is at least very rare; but 
the second Z, which approaches very near to the Polish ^, be- 
longs to the same class; we write it therefore /. 



TAMASEQ. 



- 


- 


: 


— • • • 


1 


:: 


- XI 


1 


a I 


a 3 


- 


□ X 


+ n,u,A 


1 


□,o# 


- m? 


D 


;=;,][- 



D,0 



- ? 

k CJ 

- 9 

t d 

t d 

- h 



- 


h - 


-- 


- / 


n 


X - 


n 


s z 


- 


(0 ? 


n 


s z 


m 


f - 



V 

r I 

w 



206 HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 
As kelad sawalen aj^titen^ ahulay iyen dey emir en tafsit 
helad ishelbel; itkar akal s takat. Isela s azibard; yusa d yur 
es^ inna s: ewod^ kal ahiday, ma fidl teged takat tarey'^ Inna 
s ahulay: elkamey ulli^ tarunet s takat. 

(Hanoteau, Gramm. Tarn. p. 135.) 

Remarks. 
The Libyc branch of the Hamitic nations is still spread 
over a large part of northern Africa. We know best at pre- 
sent the languages of the Kabyles and of the Lnusay or Tuareg 
by the two respective grammars of Hanoteau. The latter 
language, called Tainaseq or Tamaseyt (with the addition of 
the feminine t to the gentile name) is more free from Arabic 
influence than the former. A peculiar alphabet of old Libyc 
origin is very generally in use, though without any literary 
application in books. These letters, which are first printed 
in the grammar of Hanoteau, are called Tifinay (plur. of Ta- 
fineq or Tafineyt), The three vowel signs, the first of which 
might rather correspond to the Arabic \ than to the Latin «, 
and the two latter of which are used also for the semivowels 
w and ;?/, are of so rare and indefinite use — owing probably to 
the influence of the Arabic writing system — that our tran- 
scription can only render the living pronunciation, not the 
Tifinay writing. We write instead of Hanoteau's ^', M, ch^ y, n^ 
ouy according to our system g,^, s, z, n, w. The letter n, 
being used only before gutturals, may give up its diacritical 
point. The letter s and, according to Hanoteau, perhaps also 
the letter j^ occur only in Arabic^words. The letter t is often 
replaced by or confounded with d. The description of the 
letter , which we write 0, is not sufficient to remove all doubts 
about its pronunciation. The sound of the letter : being that 
of the Arabic ^ should be rendered by /, and we must protest 
expressly against the transcription / of Hanoteau, rh of 



HAUSA. 



207 



Dr. H. Barth, and any other which takes r as its basis. It would 
cause a great confusion, if the very common blunder of Euro- 
pean travellers, to whom the sound and etymological value 
of the Semitic ^ is unknown, and who invented the new French 

word razzia i. e. s^jc, yazzwah (impetus, incursio), found its 
way into linguistic science. In Tamaseq (contracted from 
Tamaseyt)^ where / and q constantly interchange, it is even 
easier than in other languages , to see that / has nothing 
whatever to do with r. 





HAUSA. 






a a 


h g 
ts(c) dzO) 


n 


h - 

s z 


Q 


t d 


n 


s z 


6 


ts dz 


- 




u u 


p b 


m 


f - 



y 

r I 
e e 

6 ts dz 

b m f - w 

Specimen. 
Ycio muka taffi farauta^ mu uku, Yaro da obansa suna da 
bindiga, ni ina da dusi tsikin aUifu. Da muka taffi tsikin ddsi 
babic karre tare da mu; amma'oban yaro ya sanni enda ndma 
si ke. (Schon, Hausa Gramm. p. 165.) 

Remarks. 
We give the alphabet as it has been reduced to our prin- 
ciples already by Schon in his „ Grammar of the Hausa 
language. 1862." It seems that in the Hausa no monosyllabic 
diphthongs are used, all vowels being pronounced separately. 
The combination ts originates partly in the contraction of t 
and s (cf. itasi or itsi^ tree). In such cases at least the tran- 
scription of ts, dzj seems preferable to that of c and /. In the 
specimen, not all the existing distinctions of letters are exhibited. 



3^ 



208 



HAMITIC LANGUAGES. 



NAMA (NAMAQUA). 



a a 


^ - 


- 


h 




e e 6 (o) 


k g 


n 


X - 


- 


it u u 


t d 


n 


s z 


r 


a e i etc. 


- b 


m 


- - 


w 



au ou a% et oi ui 



Clicks: pal. /, cer. /, dent. /, lat. // 

Specimen. 

I'Guro mis. Tiia ge iquta sa Zui-iigoata; ikara Zui-iigoaz ge ti 
ei-id u-hd tite. Ta7'eef Ama Zfd-iigoabada ge m hoa jun I'amei 
lau^ mam zi ni igom. iGam-iiei mis. iQiih sa Zui-iigoah lonsaz 
ge iiause igei ihuru tite. Tareef Zfd-iigoabada ge n% lau zl ni 
mam eda iieib ions dawa td laj^are^ nu, /gai-dl^ ihomi zl gaj^a- 
ina; eda iieisa hoa ihdgu ina I'gei, i gore ^ gar e zi gan-gan. 

(Wallmann, Nama Grammar p. 83.) 

Remarks. 
Wallmann in his „Formenlehre der Namaquasprache. 1857." 
has already introduced the Standard alphabet. He attributes to 
the five vowels a pure and an imperfect pronunciation, which 
latter he writes consequently «, e, i^ o, ii. The existence of 
one aspirate K — kh would be very strange. Tin da 11 in his 
5,Grammar and Vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot language" 
p. 15. compares this sound expressly with the q of our Standard 
Alphabet. We prefer therefore this writing, whilst we take his 
gh for our ^. The characters /, I, y are introduced by him for 
foreign names. On the click-sounds see above p. 81. We find in 
the Koran a dialect of the Hottentot language, according to 
Appleyard (The Kafir language p. 17, sqq.), the same clicks 
as in the Nama dialect, and besides the letters c, j5, and y. 
With regard to the gutturals, Appleyard gives three fricatives, 
without a sufficient description however. He says : „c^ resembles 
the Dutch g\ kh is a deeper sound; and a; still deeper, and very 
harsh." We shall, therefore, not venture at present to render 
those sounds. 



MANJU. 



209 



MANJU. 








Vowels. ^ Y, 


^ 


I 




Guttural (hard) ^ ^ ^ ^ ^. 




^ 




Palatal (soft) ^- ^ a U ^ 


- 


^ 


^ 


(Chinese vowel k ) ^ ^ 


- 


_ 




^ I 


,v^ 


^ 


^ vM 


^ P 


H^ 


^ 


ii 


Chinese consonants: ^^) ^oiio^ 5»K ^ V 


a XI ka,o,u ga,o,u 


71 


J«,o,« 




e ^ i JCe,u,i ge,u,i 


- 


p^'i^^ 




M c(cO jOd 


- 


S 


y 


ta,o da,o 


- 


- 




te,H de,u 


n 


s(si) 


r I 


p b 


m 


/ 


V 


Jch gh jh 


ch j 


'hi t 


d z 



Specimen. 
Juse ama eme-i saiin 'e^e babe Jcemuni sonkolome yabumbi. 
Sajaku bttje-be julaci saiin gucu-be baja gese^ julaja bit^e- 
be sabuci fe gum-be acaj(a gese. jf«^2ate^^-56 urgujebu Kunte-i 
jendtijenge. Sinagari - de ] daJcila7Xt angala gosijolo. Mawju 
I bitje-be urunahu urebu akuci Nikan bitj^e-be jaf'-^Jciyame ge- 
1 duMeme mutembio. 

Kemarks. 

The Manju is the only Tungusian language well known to 

us. It uses, as almost all the Tataric languages, the so called 

vowel-harmony, according to which the guttural vowels a, o, u 

are wont to combine with one another in the same word, and 



210 TATARIC LANGUAGES. 

likewise the palatal vowels e^ w, i. European scholars are 
accnslomed to transcribe A^ by 6 and X. by ou or u. It is 
important to avoid henceforth this transcription , which ne- 
cessarily gives a false idea of the Manju vocahsm. The quan- 
tity of vowels is in this, as in most of the cognate languages, 
of no consequence, and the vowel 6 is not longer then any 
other; its pronunciation is that of w, and in Chinese it is 
always rendered by a close o in contradistinction to ^ , which 
is pronounced o. We write them consequently respectively o 
and li. Both belong, as in all languages, to the guttural or 
hard vowels. The vowel ^ , on the contrary, is decidedly a 
palatal or soft vowel, and can, therefore, not be pronounced 
as our common tc. It approaches indeed rather to the very 
close Swedish «^, with which Castren compares the same pa- 
latal vowel in the Buryetic and Samoyedic languages, and 
which sounds to our ears almost as u. Castren and Schiefner 
have already chosen for this sound the most convenient tran- 
scription w, wherein we follow them also for the Mawju. The 
vowel e is pronounced in most of the Tataric languages broad 
as e. There is still a seventh vowel K , which, however, is used 
only for the indistinct u vowel of the Chinese words su and tu 
when they are written in Manfic. We write it, as in Chinese, w. 
The Afanfu consonants were transcribed by Amyot, Langles 
and others according to the Chinese pronunciation. Remusat 
and his followers have rightly substituted the genuine pronun- 
ciation. The general opinion is, that the letters ^ and ^ , -^^ 
and '^^ , -^ and '^, as well as the letters P and 4* , -^ and 
4*^ 5 diflPered only in form not in sound, and were consequently 
also in transcription not distinguished from one another. But 
the circumstance that the first letters Jc, g^ j, t^ d, occur exclu- 
sively before the guttural vowels a, o, ?^, and the second letters 
Jc, ffj ^, t, d^ exclusively before the palatal vowels e, w, i (t and d 
only before e, ^^), shows clearly, that the first were likewise 
pronounced as guttural and gutturo - dental, the second as pa- 



MANJU. 211 

latal and dental consonants. It is therefore as essential for 
our transcription, as for the genuine writing, to distinguish 
both classes by their respective diacritical signs. The only 
doubt which could be raised against this view, would spring 
from the combinations ti and di^ which occur in the indi- 
genous syllabarium and in a few words in the dictionary, 
whilst there is no mention of the combinations ti or di. But 
the same dictionary proves, that the combinations f^, di are 
as little used in any original Manfu word as ti, di; only in 
a few Chinese words received into the Manju the syllables ti 
and di are found. The Manjju at present pronounce the letters 
{T, /, 5, before i very like the Polish c, j, 6', which latter 
trajiscriptioii might be used in consequence; it seems, however, 
scarcely necessary to go farther in our distinction of sounds 
than the Manju themselves. The nasal n, whose form is a 
composition of n and ^, only occurs at the end of words, or, 
if in the body of a word, before k oy g^ Ic oy g. The letter r 
also is never found at the beginning of a word. The pro- 
nunciation of the letter ^ , which occurs only before a and e^ 
is not w, as European scholars write it, but v. The letters 
c, J J s, g, s, t, d are, like the palatal or dento- palatal 
letters, not combined with u, nor s, g, t, <i, like the gut- 
turals, with {. The letters ^'A, gh, j(li, ch, jh, t, rZ, z are 
employed only in Chinese words. 

The forms of the Manju letters show, that only five vowels and 
thirteen consonants were originally distinguished, the others, 
which have only a secondary form , having as we may presume, 
arisen as sounds only later. The letters u, ^andjj;-, gsiudj, d, d are 
distinguished by diacritical signs from o, k, ^, t, t; and j, p, s, f 
are modifications of 3/, 6, 5, u, and ^ is a composition of n 
and E The original alphabet was therefore very simple, viz. a, 
0, iCy e, i; k, 1c, c, t, t, b (or p); n, m; s; g, ?*, I, v (or/). 
The letters are written in vertical columns, which run from 
left to right. 



212 



TATARIC LANGUAGES, 



SHARRA-MONGOLIAN. 



1 ^ 


^ ^^ 


1 


— 




^ ^ i 


o o 


— 


— 






u ^ 


— 


:?^ 


*/l 




* ♦ 


»H 


> 


-?! 4J 




[^] <!> 


-h 


— 


A 


a o(u) 


^Cyr)«,o 9(r>,o 


'/^ 






e o(u) i 


ke,ii,i ge,u,i 


- 


- 






4?) i(d,^) 


- 


s 


y 




t d 


n 


S{8i) 


r I 




\p] h 


m 


- 


V 



Remarks. 

The Mongolian alphabet is essentially the same as the Manju; 
it wants only several letters, whose developement has not taken 
place, as ^, d, f. The fricative j is not distinguished from ^, 
one dialect using ^, the other ^, in the same words. The 
letters c and / are pronounced in other dialects t and d (or z) ; 
J and y have the same form in writing except in the middle 
of words. The peculiar sign for p occurs only in foreign 
words; but b sounds almost as p at the end of words. 

The Western Mongols (Olgt^ Kalmuks) distinguish seven 
vowels, three guttural a, o, Uy and four palatal ^, <?, w, i; 
and, besides, the following consonants: ^, g^ j, y; t (pronounced 
<r before *'), s, y; t, d^ w, s, z, r, I; p, 5, m, v. 



BURYETIC. 



213 



BURYETIC. 



Castren. 


Castren. 




a u 




h 




a 6 u e i ^ 9 


d 


X - 




c 3 


- 


- - 




c 3 


- 


s £ 


j 


t d 


n 


s z 


r I 


P ^ 


m 


- - 




Palatalised consonants: k ^ t d n r I 


Standard Alphabet. 


Guttural (hard) vowels: a o u 




h 




Palatal (soft) vowels: *e o u e i k{k) g 


n 


X - 




*c 7 


- 


- 


y 


t d 


- 


s z 




t(t) d 


n 


X§) z 


r I 


p h 


m 


- 




Palatalised consonants: 


*U ' 


^x ^t' *d 


V / t 



Specimen. 
Urdo zaj(en terme dene ppci ulan j(uyihe, 
eje tone barici^ kogo cine mordonai; 
baron talan jobdone der debe belele ; 
abe tone gargai^e^ kggo cine mordonai. 

Ca^stren, Burjatische Sprachlehre, p. 241. 



Remarks. 

The palatal vowels e and i combine also with guttural vowels 
in the same word. Th^ vowel m sounds, according to Castren, 
like the Swedish ?/, somewhat diflferent from w, with which 



214 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



it corresponds however in other Tataric languages. The con- 
sonants ^, t^ 5, are said to sound emphatically before guttural 
vowels, that means, t and s are pronounced as gutturo-den- 
tals, and k as a deep guttural in contradistinction to its pa- 
latal pronunciation before the palatal vowels. The letters ^, 
Z, r, n, t, d before i pass in several dialects into 3/, t, /, n\ 
5, d! . The fricative ^ passes in most dialects before the 
guttural vowels into ^, which before palatal vowels sounds 
like M, as t like th. Those letters, to which we have added 
an asterisk, are not found in all the dialects. 



YAKUTIC. 



Guttural (hard) vowels : a u i 
Palatal (soft) vowels: e u i 



k g 

^ a 

t d 

p b 





h 


71 


X y 


n 


- 


n 


s 


m 


- . 



y y 

r I I 



specimen. 

Saj(a tmuoyun w'dugunen orto, 6l da ginnar tomuruon Jonu- 
nan dttamaj tustdj. Siraidarin bislta japtayaidmi , munnulara 
seb ulajan^ jara^tara sasarjai Meter ^ara^ astara ^ara kgng 
Xoyu, bitik ^asan da ummef. 

Bohtlingk, Ueber die Sprache der Jakuten, p. 61. 



Remarks. 
Bohtlingk in his Yakutic Grammar writes this language 
with the following Russian letters: a, o, y, li, a, o, y, ij 

h, K, F, H, X, 5, M, ^, h', j, j, T, A, H, C, P, A, 1, H, B, M. 



TURKISH. 



215 



The letter which we write y with our diacritical sign of na- 
salisation is, according to Bohtlingk, a nasal 3/, and resembled 
in this respect perhaps to the old Baktrian jsS , which we 
have rendered, however, by ii as an explosive letter. 



3— 3 <S 



TURKISH. 



(e) 






^ 



o 



(c) 


» 


t 


t 


u^ 


0) 


03 


M 


LT 


J 


(^) (^) 


U5 


3 



L5 



^ ^ 



a z^ ^ 
e u i 



(0 



5 


- 


y^' 


9 


c" 


J 


t 


(^) 


t 


d 



p 



m 



Qi) 


h 




X 


9 




^ 


(2) 


y 


s 


(?) 




8 


z 


I r 


(«) 


0) 




/ 


V 


' 



216 TATAItIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 

Kasembeg, Turkish Gramm., transl. by Zenker p. 17. 

Ei ogul soile bilmis ol lei Uaq sohKdnahit ve ta'dla dsikdr ve 
nihdnde ve yerde ve IcgJcde ve bu Jehdnda ve ol jehdnda 'aqlile 
idrdJc olunur; amma Icendinin ddti serifi tasavvuri yaqildan mu- 
nezzehdir. Aymna eger dilersin-Tci allah ta'dlani bilesm^ evvel 
Icendi Tcendini-bil , ve Jcendi Halindan j^aberdar ol; zird her Mm 
Jcendim bildi Maq sobKdnahu ve ta'dlani bildi: bu sozden maqsud 
ki sen bilinmissin ve oi biUji-dir, ya>ni sen naqissin, dl naq- 
qds-dir. 

Remarks. 
The notation of the vowels is so variable and imperfect, 
that the transcription can only be regulated by the living 
pronunciation. Long and short vowels are generally not dis- 
tinguished in genuine Turkish words. The connective z, however, 
called kesri idd/e, is shorter then the common i'y we write it 
therefore t. In foreign words the long vowels are usually 
pronounced as such and may be so written. The accent of 
the words is not very distinct, but floating as in the French 
language, and depending upon the whole sentence; we indi- 



TURKISH. 217 

cate it therefore only in exceptional cases. The 1 is but a 
fulcrum for various vowels and must not be rendered by our 
consonantal sign ', the sound of the Arabic liamza ^ not being 
used in the Turkish language. The letter » h at the end of 
a syllable is pronounced only after a long vowel (I, 3? l5); 
after a consonantal letter it indicates only the presence of one 
of the short vowels e or a, which we write then in our tran- 
scription instead of h. According to the vowel -harmony the 
four guttural-vowels a, o, ic^ i combine together, and the four 
palatal vowels <?, o, u, i likewise. As in other cognate lan- 
guages, the guttural consonants >' , q, K, j^ y, t, S^ s, z^ com- 
bine with the guttural vowels, although the latter four (t, ^, s, z) 
have almost lost their emphatic or guttural pronunciation. 
The consonants A, ^, ^, t, s, z are on the other hand only 
used with palatal vowels; the other consonants are anceps. 
The letter / has lost its peculiar Semitic pronunciation, and 
vj5 is pronounced as a common guttural ^, whilst Ic and ^, both 
written ^^ are uttered nearly at the palatal point and ge- 
nerally followed by a slight y) we write them consequently 
1c aud g. The sayir mm^ which springs always from nh or ng 
is dialectically still pronounced n or nh^ in Constantinople as n. 
The letters Jp d and 6 d are pronounced as 0, and o ^ as 5; 
*) has not the Arabic sound of lo ^ but that of v. The letters 
6m ^ ^^% j ^9 Ji? ^5 O^ 1^? o ^, 6 d are not found in ori- 
ginal Turkish words, but only in words received from the Arabs 
or Persians. The specimen is taken from the Turkish-Tataric 
Grammar of Mirza A. Kasem-beg, translated by Zenker (1848), 
p. 17, and shows at the same time several essential deviations 
in our representation of the Turkish sounds from that of the 
author. We had the great advantage to consult personally one of 
the most competent scholars in this matter, the consul Dr. Rosen, 
who is both practically and scientifically perfectly acquainted 
with the pronunciation of the Turkish language, as well in 

Constantinople as in the chief provinces of the Turkish empire. 

p 



218 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



TURKMENIAN. 



u 



m 



h 

xO) r 

s 

s z 

/ - 



Cf. Ilminsky, in the Bulletin de I'Acad.. Imper. des sciences de St. 
Petersbourg, 1. 1, 1860. p. 563 sqq. 



K A Z A K (WESTERN KIRGHIZ, small horde). 



Guttural (hard) vowels; a a o u i 
Palatal (soft) vowels: e e e i o u 



9 


n 


s z 


d 


n 


s z 


h 


m 


- - 



I I 



Specimen. 
Astn dstn dstna — hireket her sen bdsina^ 
hodenedei zoryaldp — kwyd^uldai kuryaldp 
Ktdir kelsin kdsind — nose turydn hoz uige 
Kidir atd ddresin — hei hisese bul uidun 
unike kursdk koterib — u_yd kgze zaresin^ etc. . 

(Speech of thanks after a feast.) 

Remarks. 
The Kiryiz {Kirghiz) are divided into the eastern tribes 
(the black or mountain Kirghiz or Burnt) ^ who alone call 
themselves Kiryiz^ and the western tribes {Kirghiz -Kaissaks) 
who call themselves Kazak, and are subdivided into four hordes, 
the great, the middle or Sibirian, the small, and the inner 
or Bukeyew horde. The alphabet, as well as the specimen, 
belong to the small horde and have been communicated to 
the author by Dr. L e r c h. He has observed that some Kazak 
individuals pronounce the letter z as f, and others sometimes j( 
instead of the common pronunciation k, Ilminsky writes q 
instead of k before the palatal vowels. 



SAMOYETIC DIALECTS. 



219 



SAMOYEDIC DIALECTS. 



Castren. 
a ic y 
a u i e u 



k g 

6 3 

G 3 

t d 

p b 



Castren. 
h 

V 



s z 
f - 



r b I 

w 



Palatalised consonants: tdcnszrl 



^andard Alphabet. 

Guttural (hard) vowels: a o u i - ' 

Palatal (soft) vowels : e g u i e u h g 

V V 

G J 

t d 

S 3 

t d n 

p b m 

Palatalised consonants: t' d! t 



h 

X 



f - 



y 

r r I 

w 



s z 



r I 



Remarks. 
The sounds represented above belong to five different dia- 
lects, of which none possesses all of them. The Yurak wants 
the letters: e, ^, r, s, i, c, j, d, f; the Taiigi: ^, e, o, w, j, 
A, r, /•, 5, i, c", ;, 0, z, t, t\ d, p, w; the Yenissei: i, e, p, u^ 
X, r', s, f, c, /, z, 0, /, /, d, p, w; the Ostyak: % r, r, f, s, z^ t; 
the Kamassin: i, r, r, c, /, s, z^ t\ c?, /. About the vowel u 
see above p. 210, and about i p. 54. The letter ' is principally 
heard at the end of words, when another consonant is drop- 
ped. The peculiar letter, which Castren writes ^, but in which, 
as he observes, the sound of r predominates, seems to be a 
cerebral r. (Castren, Gramm. der Samojed. Sprache, herausg. 
V. Schiefner. 1854.) 



P2 



220 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



MAD'ARIG (HUNGARIAN). 



ad 11 u 


k g 




- 


h - 


e e o(o) ii u(tl) i i 


cs{ch,ts) ds 


- 


s zs(z) 




iy gyidj^y) 


7iy 


- - 




cz{c,tz) (dz) 


- 


- - 




t d 


n 


sz z 




p b 


m 


f V 




Standard. 


ad ti u 


^ 9 ^ 


- 


h - 


e e g o u u i ~i 


^ a 


- 


s z 




t\tij) d'idy) 


n(ny) 


- - 




t (<?) 


- 


- - 




t d 


n 


s z 




p b 


m 




/ ^ 



Ky) ly 



y i\iy) 



r I 



Specimen. 

rt \. Es Ion az napokban^ Avgusztus csdszdrtol parancsolat adatek 

/A/ ki^ ^ogy mind az egesz fold beirattatnek. 2. (E beiratds lett 
X- eoszor^ mikor Sziridban Czirenms tiszttarto volna.J. 3. Mennek 
vala azert mindenek^ ^^(^gy beirattatndnak , kiki az o vdrosdba. 
4. Felmme pedig Jozsef is Galiledbol^ Ndzdretnek vdrosdbol Judea 
tartomdnydba , a Ddvid vdrosdba^ mely Bethleliemnck neveztetikj 
mivelhogy Ddvidnak hdzdbol es hdznepe koziil valo vala; 5. Hogy 
beirattatftek Mdridval, ki neki jegyeztetett vala felesegid , es vala 
vdrandos. Ev. Luc. 2, 1 — 5. 



1 . Es Ion az napokban, Augustus cdsdrtol parancolat adatek ki, 
hod' mind az eges fold beirattatnek. 2. (E beiratds lett elGsor, 
mikor Siridban Tirmius tisttarto volna.). 3. Mennek vala azert 
mindefiek^ hod' beirattatndnak ^ kiki ^az 6 varosdba. 4. Felmene 
pedig Yozef is Galiledbol^ Ndzdretnek vdrosdbol, Yudea tartomd- 



MORDVINIAN. 



221 



ndba, a David vcirosdba, met Bethlehemnek neveztetik, mivelhod' 
Ddvidnak hdzdhol es hdznepe hgzul valo vala; 5. Hod' heirattatnek 
Mdridval, ki neki yed'eztetett vala felesegul^ es vala vdrandos. 

Remarks. 
Besides the fully assibilated palatals c and /, there exists 
jn the Mad'aric language another class of slightly assibilated 
palatals, corresponding* to the Polish and Serbian c, j, and 
still more to the Cheskian t , cZ', n. They are now incon- 
sistently written ty ^ gy ^ ny , ly ^ the two former being uttered 
at exactly the same point of the palate. Undoubtedly they ought 
to be written either lc(ky) and g{gy)^ or t'{ty) and d\dy). As, 
in fact, they approach more to the dentals than to the gut- 
turals, and are pronounced even nearer to the teeth, than c 
and / , and as moreover ty and gy (dy) not seldom are derived 
from the dentals t and d {Dorotya ~ Dorothea, gyemant = dia- 
mant) and instead of ^^ in former times di or <:/;', and sometimes 
even dy , were also written, we naturally prefer to write t' 
and d\ as well as n and I' . The explosives of the first column 
are the real dry tenues (see p. 134), 



MORDVINIAN {MoVsa dialect). 



Hard: 


a u i 


k g 


n 


h 






Soft: 


e e i 


^ J 


- 


s 


z 


y 






t t d 


n 


s 


z 


r 






p b 


m 


f 


V 


- 



Palatahsed consonants: l\ n\ s, d', etc. 

Specimen. 

At a i traks. 
Al'at asil alasats, tak son traksints lanks kambras sots, Sotits 
spi asize arsa^ sto kambrasis traksti af lad'ai^ ozas trakst 



222 TATARIC LANGUAGES. 

lanks^ senksa sto ickezi yalga molems ez yorsa. Son, ozas\ kar- 
mas traksi aid'ammza; traksis antsak^ ozadit ala askil'ai, 
Alas' trakst pa^itsisi; ti'aksis kolai savir moli. Al'at ketsa 
mandil, trakst kosarize, soridiinza arai, son mant-ezda ardiz 
tui. Traksis kolai savir moli^ livskidi i leksi; a ardimats as 
son\ kut' i savik, Traksis mele al'at alu pras; af madrena: 
traksis asiz sas saca arnemd. A savik erevi sodams: kona savir 

I- L. L ^ - L. 

yakamd sacs^ sendi af lindemd. 
(The peasant and the cow, a Mordvinian fable. Gramm. of Ahlquist, p. 120.) 

Remarks. 

The Mordvinians live with few exceptions on the upper and 
middle banks of the Sura, a tributary of the Wolga. Their 
language is divided into two dialects, the Moksa and the Erse, 
the former of which is treated in the lately published Moksha- 
Mordvinian Grammar of Dr. Ahlquist^), whose personal 
experience of the spoken language we had the advantage to 
consult. His Grammar is printed in the Standard alphabet 
with a few unimportant deviations. We should prefer to write 
e instead of «, although the sound is the deep English sound 
(aV of which we have spoken above p. 50 sqq. His hard « 
( bl ) is our i. As to the peculiar t^ which is pronounced with 
a more lengthened pressure of the tongue against the upper teeth, 
the description seems to indicate the same emphasis, which 
we have met with already in several other Tataric languages. 
For this reason we prefer to write t. The Mordvinian lan- 
guage participates in the vowel -harmony which is found in 
the cognate languages, and its consonants are subjected to the 
influence of the following palatal vowels by assuming a shade 
of 2/, expressed by the palatal line: r' I' etc. 

* Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Ural-Altaischen Sprachen. I.Theil 1861. 



LIVONIAN. 



223 



LIVONIAN. 





a 




k g 


n 


(h) 






e Q 

Q 




t d 


n 


s z 


y 


e 











s z 


r 




w 


u 


p b 


m 


(/) ^ 


- 




^ 














i 













Specimen of the Kolken dialect. 

Un se puoga kitis temmin: o iza, ma um patti tiend vasti 
tovast un vasti sinda^ un eh uo emm vert^ ku sa minda ents 
puogaks nutdd. Bet iza kltis ents pudsidin: tuogid nent ama 
yuvdd ornd un edigid tenda , un dndagid temmin suormiks keddi 
un kengad yalgi. Un tuogid ud liebiz vdskiz un tapdgid sie, las 
meg siomi un lustlgil velmi. Siest ku min puoga vet yera kuolin, 
un ni ta um taggis yels sond^ ta vet kaddin^ un um lievtid. 
Un ne urgist lustlgil velda. 

Ev. Luc. 15, 21 — 24. (Sjogren-Wiedemann, Liv. Gramm. vol.1, p. 354) 



Remarks. 

The Livonian language is at present spoken in Livonia by 
only eight persons in the village of Salis, in Courland by 
several thousands. Of the two Courland dialects of Kolken 
and Pisen, the former has one vowel more than the latter, 
viz. e. Since it has besides the two palatal vowels o and w, 
also the two guttural vowels e and i, the vowel-system is very 
complete. The vowel -harmony however has left only a few 
traces. The sound of h is almost entirely dropped, and / occurs 
only in foreign words. The standard work upon the Livo- 
nian language is that of Sjogren, edited by Wiedemann, 
St. Petersbourg. 1861. in 2 vols. 4°, and the alphabet used 



224 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



in this work is our Standard alphabet. Only, j is employed 
instead of our y, and a instead of e. There is a diiference 
made between the a of the Pisen dialect, and o of the Kolken 
dialect; the first is an o still more open than o. We should 
prefer to write both o, as they do not occur in the same 
dialect. The vowels g and g are essentially the same as our 
& and i. Our proposition , however, to write them so was at 
the time of publication not yet known to the learned editor 
of Sjogren's work. 



TAMIL (TAMULIAN). 



6T 6J ^ ^ 

FT- 6^5 £ 6)grr 



c3 c5) 


ITl_ 


- 


& & 


(65 


LU 


L- '_ 


0601 


err 


P ^ 


(507 


LQ 


? ? 


5 


n 6d 


u u 


LQ 


QJ 



Sanskrit 
sounds 

h 



a a 




h 


h9 


n 


- 


h 


e e 


6 


c 


^J 


1 
n 


y 


J 


^ i 


u u 


t 


d 


n 


I 


s 






t 

r 


d 

r 


n 


T 


- 






t 


d,d 


n 


r I 


s 






P 


h 


m 


V 


_ 



TAMIL (TAMULIAN), 225 

Specimen. 

Yennattmdlyenil Pardharan tammudiya ore ipeddna kimidrani 
vizuvdzikkadavan yavano avan kaddupoydmal nittiya zwani adi- 
yumpadikkic averiye koduttu ivvalavdi ulayattdridattil anhdi 
ininddr. Ev. Joh. 3, 16. 

Kumar an avani noki, tayappane tevanuhum umakum virotamdi 
pavam ziten itumutal umudiya kumddan yandu arikapaduvaterku 
nan pdtirah allavendu sondn. Ev. Luc. 15, 21. 



Remarks. 

We follow principally Caldwell in his "Comparative Gram- 
mar of the Dravidian languages." London 1856. The vowel 

j * is mostly weakened from final a and a, but "every trace 
of the sound of a has disappeared", says Caldwell. It is mostly 
long, but sometimes also short. It is evident, therefore, that 
we have to do with a simple vowel, not with a diphthong, 
as it is represented by Caldwell and others {ei or ai) , and 
that the Tamils were right in giving to it a simple sign. It 
"accords in sound very nearly with the sound of e or ey in 

' Turkey \ according to Caldwell. We have no doubt, that it 
is the same as that Tulu vowel, which has been compared by 
a good observer to "a short and indistinct u^ These diflPerent 
descriptions lead us to believe, that it is the vowel peculiar 
to most of the Tataric and several Slavonic languages, which 
we write i (see above). The diphthong au occurs only in 
Sanskrit words. The slight change of sound which all the 
vowels, except ?7, undergo after the cerebral consonants, in- 
cluding partly also the common r and Z, is, in connection 
with certain traces of the vowel-harmony (Caldwell p. 101. 136.), 
most interesting for the linguist, but cannot be represented 
in transcription. With regard to the consonants^ the letter ^, d 
is erroneously taken for a semivowel by Caldwell (p. 108) 
who writes it R. The Tamil Grammarians themselves divide 



226 TATARIO LANGUAGES. 

their consonants (C. p. 102) into six surds or explosives (val- 
Unam): k^ c, t^ t^ p, ^(r) , six nasals (mellinam): n, n, n, n, 
m^ n^ and six semivowels: y, r, /, v, r, I. The pronuncia- 
tion of the letter ^(r) is generally described as a peculiar com- 
bination of t and r, or, if sonant, of d and r, which again 
shows its explosive nature, and prevents any transcription 
with the basis of r or R, instead of t (or d). The Tamulians 
would certainly have arranged their varga's, as we have done 
it, according to the Sanskrit principle, if they had not followed 
too closely the Sanskrit alphabet, in rejecting at the end the 
four letters r, f, ^, n, which the Tamulians have added 
to the Sanskrit alphabet. For the old Vedic 35 I had disap- 
peared in Sanskrit, and T T corresponds in the Tamil, as in 
the Hindi, Hindustani, Sindhi etc. to the dental r. The Dra- 
vidian and Hindi r was derived from d and was probably 
slightly different from the Sanskrit r; we should even prefer 
to write the Dravidian sound r, if two diacritical signs were 
not too heavy, and if the transcription /• were not already 
too generally received. It is indeed our opinion (see above 
p. 99. upon the Hindi letters ^ r and ^ rh) that the Tamu- 
lian letters t, d have a similar relation to the cerebrals t^ (?, 
as the palatals c^ /, have to the gutturals k, g\ and we take 
^, c?, r(f) as peculiar slight assibilations or vibrations of the 
cerebrals t^ d, r, approaching to the combinations ts^ dz^ rz; 
for there is physiologically a very slight difference between 
f and s, ;/• and z. At all events we must choose single cha- 
racters for the single Dravidian letters. This assibilation of 
Z, d, ;- pushes the tip of the tongue a little forward and 
nearer to the dental point. Hence the letter c3CT, our w, which 
occurs only before d and at the end of words, and which 
originally belongs certainly more to the cerebrals than to the 
dentals, as even its figure shows. By a Tamulian euphonic 
law, the surd letters k, (T, t, t, t, p, are pronounced as so- 
nants, wherever they occur singly in the middle of a word, 



I 



TAMIL (TAMULIAN). 227 

and three of them , ky c^ t^ lose in this position even their 
explosive nature and become sonant fricatives. No sonant 
letter, on the contrary, begins a word. This law explains 
the fact, that in Tamil and partly in Malay alam the same 
characters serve to express the surds and the sonants. Our 
transcription must of course follow in this respect the pro- 
nunciation. If in the middle of a word the surd letter is to 
be pronounced , its character is repeated. The sonant <9B (k) 
is pronounced /; the sound of g is sometimes retained in 
Sanskrit words. The sonant & (c) is pronounced z^ "as a 
very soft sA"; the sound of j is sometimes heard "in vulgar 
Tamil", and "in the use of those Sanskrit derivatives in which 
the letter ^ / is found in Sanskrit." The sonant letter 
^ (t) is pronounced "with the sound of the soft English ^A"; 
the sound of d occurs only, "when it is combined with a 
nasal, as in andam.''^ The Tamil 61J has not the English sound 
w\ it is generally rendered by v, and we keep this transcription, 
although the description of this sound might raise the doubt, 
whether it were not rather pronounced like the w of middle 
Germany (see above p. 75}. The Tamil is destitute of sibi- 
lants and aspirates, as well as of the simple spirans h. The 
letters 5, s, s, h, if occurring in Sanskrit words, are repre- 
sented by the corresponding Grantham characters ; s in Sanskrit 
derivatives of earlier date is replaced by the Tamil c or f, the 
Sanskrit s by the Tamil t or d^ sometimes by r, or even by t 
or <i; the Sanskrit s sometimes by t, c or z^ and sometimes it is 
omitted altogether. The Sanskrit h is omitted in the Tamil. 
The connection of consonants and vowels is analogous to that 
in the Sanskrit, the above given vowel characters being used 
only in the beginning of words. 



228 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



C5^ CS^ 



MALA YALAM. 

ca GO 

S OJO 
OO O 

(7D a 



€3 


OD ° 


- 


(5Yir. 


C/9 


cq; 


err) 


ca:. 


^ 


- 


- 


^ 


OO 


Ono 


ro GJ 


Ch 


- 


OJ 



6LJ f^-e_i 

O CU9 

LQ CO 



^ ^ 

i I u u 

r f I I 

O O u o 

ai au 



k g 

^ ] 

t d 

t d 

r r 

t d 

p b 



n 


h 8 


- 


n 


s 


y 


n 


s 


I 

r 
r I 


n 


s 


m 


- 


w 



kh gh 

ch jh 

th dh 

th dh 

ph bh 



Specimen. 

Entakondenndl Deiwam tande egwjdtandiya putane, awenil 
wiswasikkunawen orutemmi nasiccapokdte , nitty wjlwan tintdken- 
tunnatina^ taruwdn takkawannam eteyum lokatte snehicm. 

Ev. Joh. 3, 16. 

Appol makan awanofa, appane^ nan swerggattina nereyum, 
m?ide munbdkeyum pdpam ceytirikannu inimel ninde makan enna 
collappetuwdn yogyanalla enna paranu, Ev. Luc. 15, 21. 



Remarks. 

In Malay dlam e and e^ o and 6 are represented only by 
one character; in our transcription, however, they ought to 
be marked according to their quantity. We have excluded 



TULU. 



229 



the compound letter H, which is generally exhibited in Gram- 
mars. There is a peculiar nasal in Malay dlam^ Telugu and 
Kanarese, which is pronounced m at the end of a word; but 
it may also euphonically be substituted for any other nasal 
and will then be pronounced accordingly. In our system it 
need not be marked. The letter Qj is pronounced w^ not v^ 
as in the other dialects. Gf. the Grammar of the Malayalim 
language by the Rev. Joseph Peet (Ch. Miss. Soc). 2^^ ed. 
Cottayam. 1860. 



TULU. 



ad 


k 


9 


n 


h § 






e e 


c 


J 


n 


s 


y 




it i u u 


t 


d 


n 


s 


T 


I 


r f 


t 


d 


n 


s 


r 


I 


ai au 


P 


b 


m 


- 


V 





kh gh 

ch Jh 

th dh 

th dh 

fh bh 



Specimen. 

Yesu^ Yehudada Bethlehemudu arasdi Heroda dinoledi putti 
bokka indd jotiseri mtidayicUdi Yenisalemagu battidi Yehudye- 
regi arasu udi puttindye volu ulle ddyeg andunda yenkiilu dya 
bollini miidayidi tudu dyagi drddhane malpere battd andidi 
panderi. Ev. Matth. 2, 1. 2. 



Remarks. 

The Tuhc is ordinarily written in the Malaydlam character. 
The vowel, which we write «, has been compared to a short 
and indistinct u (see above p. 225). 



230 



TATARIC LANGUAGES. 



KARNATAKA (KANARESE). 



eD es 






S K 


:^ S 2o 


5o 




?^ ai 


9 -^ 


tro 


tA/S 


U ^ 


e)^ d^^ 






g e5 


SD 2? 






S3 eo 


a a 






^ ^ 


e e 






^ J 


i I 


u u 




t d 


r f 

e 






t d 


ai au 






p b 
^(0 



33 


& 1 


- 


C?s 


« 


o& 


ra 


:3» 


tr 


,<5 


^ 


^e. 


^ 


- 


^ 



a3 ^ 
?3 $ 



n 


h s 


- 


n 


i 


2/ 


n 


s 


I 


n 


s 


r I 


m 


- 


V 



kh 


9^ 1 


ch 


Jh 


th 


dh 


th 


dh 


ph 


bh 



Specimen. 

Ydtakkendere dtanalli visvdsa riduvavarellaru nasavdgade nitya 
Jtvavanmi honduva nimitta Devaru tanna vobbane maganannu 
kotta hdge jagatanna astu priti padisidanu. Ev. Job. 3, 16. 

Adare maganu avanige tandeye paralokakke virodhavdgiyil 
ninna mundeyu pdpa madiddhene ndnu innu ninna magarendu 
kareyalpada yogyanalla annalu. Ev. Luc. 15, 21. 

Remarks. 
In Kmiarese the letter t is confined to the poets. 



TELUGU (TELINGU). 



231 



TELUGU (TELINGU). 



2j)o 3axn» etc. 

SD go 



a a 
e e 
i I u u 

r f I I a a etc. 

o o u o 

ai au 



K 


oT^ g 


- 


^ 


^ 


0& 


a 


^ 


^ 


^ 


6 


JJ O 


& 


- 


^ 



^ es 
& 6 

k g 

^ !i4 

t d 
t d 
p b 

Specimen. 

Yendu vallanante ayanayandu visvdsamunsevddevvado vadu 
nasamu pondaka nitya Jivamunu ponde nimittamu Devudu tana 
yoka kumdruniccinattugd dagattunu p^'ttipallacenu. Ev. Joh. 3, 16. 

Appudu kumdrudii dyana to tandrl paralokamnnakunnu m- 
kumiu virodhamugd pdpamu cesi yimndnu yikamtdata nl ku- 
mdrudani piluvahada nenu yogyudanu gdnanenu. Ev. Luc. 15, 21. 



n 


h s 


- 


n 


i 


y 


n 


-^ 


I 


n 


s 


r I 


m 


s 


V 



IP 


%x> 


■^ 


^ 


s 


9 


$ 


$ 


^ 


sp 


kh 


ffh 


ch 


Jh 


th 


dh 


th 


dh 


ph 


hh 



Remarks. 

The two first letters of the second class have two sounds ; they 
are pronounced c'and/in all Sanskrit derivatives, and in Telugu 
words before i, i, e, e^ ai; before the other vowels they are 
I pronounced t and d, as in Mardthi (see above p. 109). "The 
letter t is found in Telugu (as in Kanarese) poetry, but in 
^he modern dialect of the Telugu it has fallen into disuse." 



232 



MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 



KWAN-HWA (MANDARINIC) 



dialect of Nan -kin. 



Vowels. 
a 
e 

i i u(u) 

r 

o 

au(ao) ai ei eu 

Vowels 
with end-consonants. 

ah eh ih uh 

an en in 



Consonants 
preceding a vowel. 



tCi/^w^yw KUiij^w^yw 


• h 


lll/^W,lflV 


tSiv tshw 


- 


Siv 


tSyyW,ifw tshij,w,yw 


- 


- 


tl/,W t/ll/,U) 


n;/,tv 


Sy,iV)t/w 


V'l vh 


niij 


/ 






^ 



li/,w,tpv 
20 



Tones. 
phi7ijy the floating; sari' ^ the ascending; 
kht/t(}, the descending; ii\, the returning. 

High phih pa, 

Low phi7i p)^i 

San pa' 

Khyu pa!" 

Zi pa^ 



IE 

it 



Specimen. 

A 



B 

W 



A 






/^ 



-k 
\^ 

± 

Ev. 






S|5 






Matth. 2, 1. 2. 



KWAN-WHA (MANDARINIC). - 233 

1. JSij-lyu^ ivartj^ sij^, Ye^-sUj ki" sen, yu, YeUj^ thai" Pe^-li"- 
hefij^^ yeu' po^ st" su^ zinj_^ tsi" tun, fahj^ tsi^ Yef^-hi'-sa^-lin, 
2. Ywe^: mi^ r j_ tceij^ Yeuj^-thai^ zm^, warij^ tse" ^ nan, tsai^f 
No' tsai^ tun, faiij^ kyaii" khij^ sin,, hi^ laij^ jJ'a^^ tsii. 



Remarks. 

The Kwan-hioa or Mandarin dialect is spoken by the people 
of the middle provinces of China and likewise by the higher 
officers and cultivated classes throughout the whole country. 
In this dialect, which is better known in Europe than any 
other, the monosyllabism is developed to the highest degree, 
every syllable being a whole w'ord ending with a vowel or 
one of the two nasals n and n. In former times the Kivan- 
hwa distinguished surd , sonant and aspirate consonants , as we 
have shown elsewhere ^ ; at present the sonants have disap- 
peared. The letters / and iv are always followed by a vowel; 
all the others may have inserted between them and the fol- 
lowing vowel one of the semivowels y or w, or both of them, 
as our alphabet shows. European scholars use mostly instead 
of these semivowels the full vowels i and u (or dialectically 
e and o). We do not repeat here the reasons, why this custom 
is scientifically and practically inconvenient. We have spoken 
in the same place upon the letter : , as to which we are not 
sure, whether its actual pronunciation is not rather /■, as its 
place in the sound-system as well as the description of the 
sound by some scholars, seem to suggest. The vowel ic is 
often dialectically pronounced u , which may be written wher- 
ever it seems suitable. The sound of r occurs only in one 
word, formed by this single letter, but with different tones. 
It is commonly written by the grammarians eul, or ulh, or 

^ Ueber Chines, uud Tibet. Lautverhaltnisse. Schriften der Berlin. Akad. 
1861. 

Q 



I 



234 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 

urh etc., but it is nothing else than a vocahsed, probably ce- 
rebral, r (or V) which we write consequently, r. The vowel, 
which we had formerly proposed to write z^ according to the 
pronunciation of Mr. Guzlaff, whom we consulted about it, 
seems to be derived in the Chinese system of sounds from the 
vowel u\ but it is pronounced entirely like the Tatarian and 
Slavonic "hard" i. The Russian missionaries represent it 
therefore by their li , and we have to render it consequently 
by i. It occurs only in the words si and tsL The tones 
which, in Chinese, are an essential element of speech for the 
distinction of words, were hitherto represented by European 
accents of quite a diflPerent meaning, or not expressed at all, 
and some scholars used the same accent for one tone and 
others for another ; for ex. Morrison and Remusat represent 
the san-iowQ by pa^ the khyu-ione by pd^ the high as well as 
the low phin-ione by pa; Marshman and Medhurst, the san- 
tone by pd^ the khyu-ione. by pa, the two p^m-tones by pa) 
Medhurst in the Fu-kyen dialect, the high san-iowQ by pa, 
the low san- tone by p>d, the two phin- tones by pa and pa, 
others the sa^-tone by 'pa, the khyu- tone by pa, A new 
system was under these circumstances indispensable. The 
system, which we formerly proposed and have repeated above, 
follows as closely as possible the indigenous writing, com- 
pleted by the missionaries of the southern provinces. The Man- 
darin dialect has only five tones, the phin -tone alone being 
divided into a higher and a lower; we omit therefore the 
little horizontal line which distinguishes the lower i. e. deeper 
pronunciation of the other tones. 







HOK-LO. HAKKA. 




235 






H K - L 0. 








a 


k g kh 


n 


h 


- 


Tones. 




Q 


ts dz tsh 


- 


- 


y 


high phin pa, 




e 

g 


ts dz tsh 


_ 


~ 


_ 


low „ pa. 


i 


i u 


t d th 


n 


s 


I 


high son pa' 


a 


L. 

e 'L u t 

L- 


p h ph 


m 




w 


low „ pa'' 
high khi pa^ 


ai 


au 01 eu 






low „ pai 
high nyip pa^ 














low „ pa,_ 



Remarks. 

The Hok-lo dialect is spoken in the north-eastern part of 
the province of Canton , in the department of Tsau-tsyu. The 
alphabet, as stated above, has been furnished to the author 
by the Rev. Lechler who lived several years in this country. 
The nasalisation of the vowels is less open and more squeezed 
than in the french vowels. The Fu-kyen, to which the Hok-lo 
dialect belongs, distinguishes all eight tones, but the low 
son -iowQ is pronounced with a peculiar modification, which 
might be expressed by paJ^. 





HAKKA. 






Vowels. 


Consonants. 


Tones. 


a 


k kh 


n 


h 


_ 


high phi7i : pa, 


e 


ts tsh 


- 


s 


y 


low phin: p)aj^ 


i i u 


ts tsh 


_ 


_ 


- 


son : pa' 


on 


t th 


n 


s 


I 


khi : pd> 


1 " "' " " "' 


p ph 


m 


^ 


7C 


high nyip : pa^ 
low nyip : pa^ 
Q2 



h 



236 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 

1. Hij-lut^ icorij^ kai" sij^^ Yaj^-si/ ki^ yeuj^ tshut^_ se^^ tshai" 
Yuj^ - thai'' kok^_ pa^_ - li" - herij^ yip^_ , yui ki' tsak^ yu, tshoij^ len,^ 
kai^ nyinj tshoi/ tuu/ phcn' tlieu^ loi^ tav} Ya^-lv^-sa^-larif kiui 
sarij^. 2. KaUj^ yoii^ wet": yu, tsak^ nyiuj^ tshut^ se^ loij^ tso^ Yuy- 
thai^ nyiuj^ kai^ worij^; kij^ tshoi, lai" tsak^ than^ li,f Naij^ tshoi, 
tun, peril klion> tau' kya, siui syuk^ ; so' yi/ thit^ s^^ loij^ pai^ 
fo^ ki,. Ev. Matth. 2, 1. 2. 

Kemarks. 
The Hakka dialect, as spoken in Hoh-koh^ has been already 
reduced by the Basle-missionary Rev. Lechler to the Standard 
Alphabet, in liis translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew 
(Berlin, 1860) from which we have taken the above specimen. 
It has one tone more than the Kwan-hwa^ viz. a high and a 
low ?iyip-(zi-) tone. It has moreover a vocalised m, which 
is to be written m; but it has, on the other hand, not the 
vowel r, nor the consonant f, instead of which it uses ny. 
The Hakka dialect, as well as most of the southern Chinese 
dialects, admits besides n and m other consonants at the 
end of words. In fact, all the words having the nyip or 
"returning" tone, end in one of the three consonants k, ty 
or p. In compound words, however, and in other cases, these 
final consonants, when preceding another consonant, are not 
pronounced. If, therefore, we find in the translation of 
Mr. Lechler the names of Bethlehem, Jerusalem ^ Abraham 
rendered by Pak-li-hen, Ya-lu-sat-lan , A-pak-la-hon ^ we have 
to read : Palihen , Yalusalan ., Apalaho7i. In such cases , we 
prefer not only to put little lines between the single syllables, 
but to put the apostrophe instead of the elided consonants: 
Pa\ - li"" - hen , , Fa^ - Iv} -sa\- Ian, , Aj -pa \ - la, - hon' , or to omit 
even the apostrophe, the elision being sufficiently indicated 
by the tone. 



TEAL 
THAI (Siamese dialect). 



237 



i— ii- 



1 1 



-1 



e 

o 

a d 
e e (o) (o) 
- e - p 

it 



T !J 



^ ^ u 



i-1 ~ 



[r f I I] 

L o o o -I 



at et au am 



if) 

8^ 

20 fl 21 f] 
26 JJ 27 iJ 

k 

C 

[d t 
d t 
b p 



2^ 3^ 

9n 


4^1 b?] 
10*]f 11^ 


6^ 
12 Ul 


7^ 
13 01 


16 f 


17 ^n 


18^ 


19 fw] 

1 


22 n 


23 n 


24^ 


25 -W 


28 pj 29 fj 


30 lAj 31 ^ 


32^1 


33 W 



41 1^ 42^ Ut 44 !f 



34 Ij 
36 t^ 

37 g 



39 y 

I 1 



40^ 



kh i 


^ I 


gh 


ch 


c' s 


jh 


th 


f 


dh 


th 


t 


dh 


ph f 


P f 


hh 



n 


n 


I 


' h 


n 


y 


'i' 




n 
m 


r 
I 
w 


s 
1 — I 

s 





Tones. 
The floating or period tone (rectus) .... 

The higher ascending (alius) 

The lower ascending or short (gravis) . . . 
The higher descending (circumflexus) . . . 
The lower descending or expectant (demissus) 



238 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 

Remarks. 
The letters of the Siamese are derived from the Devana- 
gari. Their present prommciation differs greatly from that of 
the time when the alphabet was fixed. As in the Mandarin 
Chinese, the variety of sounds was in former times much 
greater than now, as the alphabet itself proves sufficiently. 
It contains on the other hand a certain number of letters which 
have been subsequently distinguished from one another, as we 
may conclude from the slight variations of their shape. The 
Grammarians generally exhibit 44 consonants, to which J. Low 
adds two other obsolete signs for f/i and s. These 44 letters 
are transcribed by Low (A Grammar of the Thai or Siamese 
language. Calcutta. Bapt. Miss. Press. 1828) and Pallegoix 
(Grammatica lingua Thai, Bangkok. 1850): i. A;, 2. M, 3. M, 
4. M, 5. M, 6. kh^ 7. ng^ 8. ch^ 9. ch (Palleg. .^'), lo. ch (.y), ti. 5, 
12. ch Qc)^ 13. y Q'), 14. d^ i5. t^ 16. th^ i7. th, is. th^ 19. n, 2o. d^ 

21. t^ 22. th, 23. th^ 24. th , 25. ^, 26, h, 27. p, 28. ph ^ 29./, 30. ph, 
31. /, 32. ph , 33. m, 34. y Cy), 35. r, 36. /, 37. W {v) , 38. 5, 39. S, 

40. 5, 41. ^, 42. I, 43. a (o) , 44. h. — They state expressly, that 
there is no distinction in the present pronunciation between 
the different letters transcribed alike, except that certain 
letters viz. our letters M, j, ch, th, th, ph^ f, I, s, s, A', are 
always followed by a vowel with the high ascending tone. 
This great number of identical sounds, amongst which we 
find 5 kh, A ch^ 6 th, 3 ph would be quite unintelligible and 
embarrassing for the linguist, if we did not distinguish them 
in transcription as well as they are distinguished in Siamese 
writing, and this is only possible, if we are able to distinguish 
them at least etymologically; for it would be absurd to sup- 
pose that this identical pronunciation existed from the be- 
ginning. Now, the alphabet will be understood at once, if 
we reestablish the ancient order as we have done it above. 
Taking those letters, which differ only by a slight break in 
one part of the character, as later variations derived from 



THAI. 239 

one and the same sound, we find but five original divisions 
of every one of the five explosive classes, in perfect harmony 
with the system of the ^ve Devanagari- classes and with the 
Siamese Pali -alphabet as communicated by Low. The same 
Indian arrangement is evidently followed in the subsequent 
letters cori-esponding with the Sanskrit 3/, r, Z, v, s, s, s, A, Z, 
to which are still added two other letters !), the fulcrum of 
initial vowels ('), and Ef a second h. The fifth column con- 
tains the nasal letters and we learn from it, that the palatal 
letter ni, which now sounds only like y, was originally the 
palatal nasal n. The fourth column corresponds with the 
aspirated medials of the Sanskrit. It seems that even at present 
this original value has not quite disappeared and that the 
guttural ^ at least is still heard as c/h. The strong aspiration 
may have misled many a foreigner respective the real pronuncia- 
tion of the first part of these compounds. The third column 
ought to represent the simple medials ^, /, d, d, h and we 
do not doubt, that this was originally the case. But, as 
in the Mandarin- Chinese, where the medials were still pro- 
nounced in the &^ century after Chr. , they lost their sonant 
nature, and are now even pronounced as hard aspirates, without 
any great distinction from those of the second column, which 
properly correspond to the hard Sanskrit aspirates. The ori- 
ginal great force of aspiration inherent to the letters of the 
second column has only left a trace in the elevation of tone 
imparted to the following vowel. The proper value of the 
letters of the first column was that of surd explosives (tenues), 
and this is still the case with fl k and ^ c. Regarding the 
three other classes, the cerebrals, dentals and labials, we see 
sonants and surds distinguished. After the original sonants 
of the third column had changed into surds, the original 
surds of the first column entered partly into their place, and 
were finally distinguished by a slight variation of shape in 
those cases, when they kept their primitive surd value. On 



I 



240 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 

the other hand, the old aspirates of the second and the new 
aspirates of the third cokimn passed partly, as in many other 
languages, into their corresponding fricatives, ph and p into 
/' and /j c' into s \ kh and Ti into ^ and j; for we do not 
doubt , that ^ ^ and fl j( have the value of fricatives, although 
they are commonly transcribed by English and French writers, 
who have not this sound in their own language, by hh. If 
this should not be the case in the present time , we must at 
least suppose, that this fricative sound existed at a certain 
former time , when its character was expressly altered for this 
purpose. 

It is indispensable to distinguish also in our transcription 
the second and the third column. To this effect, we have 
dissolved , as in modern Sanskrit , the original aspirates of the 
second and fourth class into the respective explosives and the 
following h, except in ^ and/', j( and/, in which the aspi- 
ration does not follow, but is inherent. We presume, that 
jf and /' are only stronger aspirated than ^ and /, and like- 
wise ti stronger than A, as indeed the whole second column, 
as well as the sharp fricatives V\ K, f] s, U s, '^ s, manifest 
their stronger aspiration by their effect on the intonation of 
the following vowel. The cerebral letters d, t^ th, t\ dh^ n 
and the two sibilants s and s do not belong to the Thai 
proper, but are found only in Pali words. Hence their actually 
identic pronunciation with corresponding d, t, th, f, dh, n 
and s. Capt. Low has published an old Thai alphabet , in 
which these foreign letters are not comprised. 

With respect to the vowels, they seem to have undergone 
likewise several changes. We follow in the above exhibited 
table the statement of the Rev. S. J. Smith, American Mis- 
sionary, compared with the remarks of the Rev. D. D. Bradley 
in the Bangkok Calendar of 1860. p. 51. 82. as given orally 
at Bangkok 1862 to Mr. Th. von Buns en, of the Prussian 
expedition to those "countries. We can only fix the different 



KAMBOJA. 



241 



vowel sounds existing in the Thai and their regular represen- 
tation in the Siamese writing. But we must leave their ap- 
plication in the running text, which will occasionally vary, to 
the Siamese scholars. The vowels o and o are often pro- 
nounced but not written , except that o is sometimes irregularly 
written by the consonantic sign t! '; o is mostly pronounced 
between two consonants. The description of the pronunciation 
of the vowels — and — leaves no doubt, that they corres- 
pond with the Chinese and Tataric i and I, The sign _1_^ 
which is read am^ or as others say amn^ is an imitation of 
the Sanskrit anusvdra^ and the vowels r f I I occur only 
in Indian words. 

There are live tones in the Thai language, mostly repre- 
sented by the two signs -— , — and the diacritical letter 
^ (K)^ the various application of which belongs to the gram- 
mar. These five intonations may be compared with the above 
indicated Chinese tones, and represented alike. 



KAMBOJA, 



J3 JBJ 

9J '^^ 



« 



% ^ 



^. % 



5J ^ 




V 


J) 


g ^ 






•2 


gf9 


n 



ts^ 


: 


^ 




^ 




Vl5 


^ 


gr 


a 


0) 










9 i£r 



X? 



or 51 



242 



MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 



a a 



I I 



ai au 





u u 



k g 

t d 

t d 

p h 



n 
m 



h s 

I r 

I s 
w 



kh gh 

ch jh 

th dh 

th dh 

fh hh 



The 



Remarks, 
characters are almost the same as the old Pali cha- 



racters of that kind which is exhibited in the Siamese Gram- 
mar of Capt. J. Low. 



MR AN MA (BURMESE). 



Vowels. 



3^ 3^0 

^gf 4 8 8 

a u 

Tones. 
The floating or natural tone, not written. 
The acute (an' mylt) ^_ 
The grave (sye' paiik) — % 



OO O 

? 9 

OO 3 

O O 



Consonants. 


c 


OO 8 


eo 


OO - 


OD 

1 


8 a 


? 


CO 00 1 


Q 


O - ! 

1 



3 IX) 

OO 



a 


a 






k 


9 


e 




6 




c 


J 


i I 


i 

L. 




tl u 


t 


d 


a u 








t 


d 


ei au 






' 


P 


h 


Tones; 


a 


a' 


a> 







n 


h 


s 


n 


y 


- 


71 


I 


7' 


71 


I 


s 


m 


10 


- 



kh gh 

ch jh 

th dh 

th dh 

ph hh 



MRANMA (BURMESE). 243 

Rem arks. 

The Burmese writing is syllabical as the Sanskrit; the in- 
herent a is not written ; the mark _1_ placed over a consonant 
indicates the want of any inherent vowel. The vowel -signs, 
as given above, are all initial. The vowel called triphthong 
by Latter, which is composed by the signs of u and i, and 
pronounced sometimes "intermediate between o and t^", 
and sometimes as "a short oi or long V\ seems to be our 
^, i of the Tatarian and Slavonic languages, which we 
have found also in the Chinese language. The nasalisation 
C^a7iusvara") affects only the vowels a and ii. The pronun- 
ciation of the first diphthong is, according to Th. Latter, ei, 
not ai. The only Burmese sibilans corresponds with the Sanskrit 
"51 s and seems to be pronounced very near like the Polish 
s. We may therefore write it s, if with any diacritical sign 
at all. 

The present pronunciation of the Burmese letters deviates 
in many cases from the received orthography. It seems there- 
fore advisable for missionary purposes .to follow the actual 
pronunciation, whilst in linguistic researches it will be ne- 
cessary either to transcribe exclusively the old orthography, 
or to mention it at least in every single case of deviation. 
Cf. the Grammar of the Btcrman language^ by F. Carey, Se- 
rampore, 1814. and the Grammar of the Language of Burmahy 
by Thomas Latter, 1845. All pure Burmese words are 
monosyllabic. Of the peculiar Chinese tones, only three are 
in use among the Burmans, of which the floating or natural 
needs not to be indicated. 



244 



ISOLATED LANGUAGES. 



YUKAGIRIO. 



k 


9 


- 


X 


- 


c 


J 


n 


s z 


y 


t 


d 


n 


- 


r 


V 


h 


m 


■ 


w 



Specimen. 

Omoca ddil terikadeni lengi. Ke lomdok yonjuririmaf Pon- 
bure oille. Kaweik adakun inlicaon kecim. Ke lomdok yonju- 
ririma? Yonjode oille. Kaweik kecim adakun mon6goj[. Ke 
lomdok yonjmnrimaf Serezen moza, oille serezen pugalwe. Ka- 
weik adakun comogina kecim. 

Remarks. 

The alphabet and the specimen are taken from A. Schiefner, 
Ueher die Sprache der Jukagiren, in the Melanges Asiatiques 
t. III. 1859. p. 595 sqq., who there uses ah-eady the Standard 
Alphabet. 



a 



CHUKCHIC (CAUOAU). 



e e e o 

i i u 



k g 


n 


X h 




^ J 


n 


s z 


y 


t d 


n 


s z 


r 


p h 


m 


- - 


w 


Palatalised consonants: 




9 . 


X ^ 


r r 





JAPANESE. 



245 



Specimen. 

X^^Z^ 5 jj;a;^«me^?^'a , J^uci. Minkri jdtirkin f Torehaite geal- 
lim. Tawaj loarkin f Ketai^ mintawajom. Inan yarsnok Mwut 
toi^ekaite minrestim, Menjostinf Doteii jac. Isenko ^itirkin'^ 
Inege j(ilkit. X'^^X^ inkil minj(ametwamik kinemal. 

Remarks. 

The alphabet and the specimen are taken from the treatise 
of L. Radloff: ^'Ueber die Sprache der Tschuktschen\ in the 
Memoires de I'Acad. Imper. des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 
VIP serie, tome III, n" 10. 1861. The author of this treatise 
Las already employed the Standard Alphabet with a few ex- 
ceptions. With regard to his a as corresponding to the Rus- 
sian ^ we are not sure , whether this vowel is really different 
from our e. 



JAPANESE. 



k 

tjtSjtS 

(p) 



dydz^dz 
h 



(n) 
n 
m 



s.s 



f<^-> /^ 



\ indicates the lengthening of the preceding vowel. 
^ (t) indicates often the shortening of the preceding vowel, 

or the doubling of the following consonant. 
'\Jn, final nasal. 



246 ISOLATED LANGUAGES. 



-f^ ha 


>r he 


t 


kt 


=J ko 


^ ku 


jf ga 


y 9^ 


H^ 


9^ 


^" 90 


f 9^ 


1 « 


:ri e^ye 


^ 


i 


^ 


\) n 


p. ta 


T '' 


f 


tsi^tsi 


\ to 


:p tsu 


p:^da 


f' de 


t 


dzi^dzi 


Y do 


s^^ dzu 


;s pa 


< V^ 


\L° 


pi 


jf\ po 


r v^ 


;<\ ha 


^ he 


U." 


hi 


'4$ ho 


-J'' hu 


J\ fa^va^ha 


^ fe,,. 


\L 


A.. 


* >, . . 


7 A.. 


•j- na 


g- ne 


- 


ni 


J no 


y^ nu 


-^ ma 


^ me 


<• 


mi 


^ mo 


l\ mu 


f sa 


-fe. 5^ 


iy 


si^si 


;/ so 


X ««^ 


f^-za 


-fe-^ ^e 


s> 


zi^zi 


fzo 


J^ ^u 


^ 2/a 


- 


- 


- 


B yo 


=L yu 


y ra 


l^ re 


'j 


o^i 


n TO 


/^ ru 


yj wa 


2. we 


/ 


wi 


^ WO 


- 


■ 




Specimen. 








<,K V^^»T\i^r>^.^ 


^rr^ ^ HJ n np-N4+-m^ 



Japanese proverb. 

Kagami fa sugata no yosi-asi fo miru mo, kokoro no Myokii 
tUyoku wo tadasi aratamenii ga tame nari. Japanese proverb. 

Kon-nitsi wa. Nani-wo o me-ni kake-mastyo kaf Mo sw- 
kosi oki-no-wo o mise. Ki-ro wa nozomi-masenit. Hei, ziii-hun 
deki-masii. Sore wa Nippon-no fi-dori-de ari-masHkaf Si gii- 
watsic ziyu yokka-de ari-masii. Fito fako fiyak kin iri-ni nasare. 
San futo-de itsi yato-ni nari-masH (three feet make one 
yard). Is-styakii-no to-wo itsi ziyo to i-masio. 

J. Hoffmann, Shopping-dialogues. 



JAPANESE. 247 



Remarks. 



Of the two Japanese formes of writing, the cursive Firo-kana 
and the more square and distinct Kata-hana, we have exhi- 
bited above the latter, which has been reduced already to 
our Standard Alphabet by J. Hoffmann (the learned editor 
of Donker Curtius's Japanese Grammar, Leyden, 1857.) in his 
y^Shopping-dialogues in Dutch, English and Japanese^ Leyden. 
1861." The Japanese used first for their language the Chinese 
writing. In the 9*'^ century they derived from it a Japanese 
alphabet of their own and limited it to 47 syllabic signs. 
These syllables were put in such order as to form a little 
poem, the beginning of which I-ro-fa became the name of the 
alphabet. We learn from it, that the Japanese language of 
this time distinguished only ten consonants, which were com- 
posed with the ^YQ vowels a e i o u; three combinations were 
left out as not existing in the language, viz. yi, wu and ye 
(or we). The old consonantic system was therefore this very 
small one: 

k ^ - y 

t n s r 

p m - w 
Afterwards the sonants g^ cZ, 5, z were distinguished by a 
diacritical sign added to the corresponding surd letters; p was 
changed into the fricative letter / in all Japanese words; it 
preserved its original sound only in foreign words and was 
then marked by a little circle. The five letters, which are 
pronounced at present as pure vowels, seem to have been 
regarded originally as beginning with a shght guttural nasal 
*^a, ne^ ni, no.) nu.^ which afterwards was weakened (as the 
Tibetan ^) into ' (hamza).) or disappeared entirely. The as- 
sibilation of t and d before i and u into fe^, tsu, dzi, dzu, as 
well as the softening of / into v and even into h is of still 
later origin, and is therefore not indicated at all in writing. 



248 ISOLATED LANOUAGES. 

The vowel w, inherent in the syllables of our 5**' column, is 
very often pronounced so short as to disappear almost enti- 
rely, and the same happens also not unfrequently with the 
inherent vowel i. We propose to represent these vowels in 
this case (as in the similar one of the Rumanian, old Slove- 
nian and other languages) by u and i, the more so as we 
have only to follow in this respect the authority of Hoff- 
mann. The syllable nu (u), nu, mu were formerly employed 
to express the nasal terminations -n, -?^, -m^ especially in the 
Chinese words ending with -h or -n. Afterwards a peculiar 
sign was chosen for every final nasal, which at present is 
pronounced sometimes n and sometimes ?^, still differing from 
nu. We represent it by n (cf the Tamulian). The signs \ 
and ^ indicate, in foreign words, respectively the lengthening 
and the shortening of the preceding vowel. The latter sign 
is that of the letter t (tu) and is apparently chosen in imita- 
tion of the southern Chinese dialects, which exhibit, instead 
of the Mandarin words with the short or "returning" tone, 
syllables ending with ^, k or p. We follow Hoffmann and 
other European scholars in indicating the shortness of the 
vowel by doubling the next consonant and transcribe for ex. 
the Japanese Nitpon by Nippoii. When the syllables si, zi, 
tsi, dzi are followed by the syllables ya, yo, or yu, their 
respective combinations are contracted into sya^ syo, syu; zya, 
zyo, zyu; tsya, tsyo, tsyu; dzya, dzyo, dzyu (or sa, so, su; 
za, etc.). We should prefer to keep, for the sake of etymo- 
logy, the original ^, adding however the sign ^ (i) to indi- 
cate its disappearance. The change of / or v into h seems 
to be very arbitrary and, according to certain observations, 
which the author had the opportunity to make personally 
during the presence of the Japanese embassy in Berlin (1862), 
rather a matter of politeness towards the person addressed. 



TIBETAN 



249 



TIBETAN. 



(^) 



'1 ^ f 


t; Ov 


-^ 


^ ^ * 


? 


^ !) 


^ i ^ 


- 


- - 


^ ^ ^ 


1 


^ q 


tl q H 


^ 


- - 



"^ 



^ g Ml 


n > 


h 


ts dz tsh 


n 


s z 


ts dz tsh 


- 


- - 


t d th 


n 


s z 


p h pli 


m 


- - 



\ 


^ 




y 




ft 7 

g^d 


- 




'f = d 


r 


I 


11 
m — n 


w 




y^ts 



Specimen. 



j ^ I I Foucaux, Gramm. sur la langue Tibet, p. 195. 



Den tshe den dus na yul Bdranase ^-dir dran sron l-na hr-'gya 
zig g-nd-s te; dran sron de dag gis s-ton pa Udpdla zes b-yaba 
dampd-i tshos s-lob tsin hs-gom pa la d-ga-' bd-s kun tu rgyu 
zin; su la dampd-i tshos yod pa de b-dag la s-mrana. 

R 



250 ISOLATED LANGUAGES. 

Remarks. 

The Tibetan writing is syllabic like the Sanskrit^ from which 
its characters are derived. The orthography of the Tibetan 
literature was fixed at a time, when the language was still 
in a very different state. Many letters Avhich then were pro- 
nounced, are at present silent. We have the choice, either 
to give up entirely the old historical orthography, following- 
only the actual pronunciation, or to seek for a compromise 
between both. We have made a proposition to that effect in 
the above (p. 233) mentioned treatise, and our specimen will 
best show Avhat we mean. As almost all the silent letters pre- 
cede or follow the root, which alone is pronounced, they might 
all be transcribed, but separated from the letters pronounced 
in a conventional way, and the altered pronunciation of a 
few other letters might be placed above those of the old or- 
thography. The brackets as in hs)gom = gom; d)gaQ = ga; 
nd(s = ne^ which we formerly proposed, seem to be less 
convenient, than a separating line, although also this line has 
in our European writing an other meaning. The change of 
pronunciation occurs principally in the letters a, </, r, iii, i/, 
which become sometimes e, c/, t/, n, ts , and might then be 
written «, ^, r , m, y. Other minor changes, as the softer 
pronunciation of h before vowels, or the sharper of d before 
7', might be omitted. The letter ^ w^as originally a weak 
nasal, but is now, if heard at all, weakened into the sound 
of our \ The vowels, except a (which is not w^-itten), are 
expressed in the middle of words by the signs known from 
the Sanskrit, and in the beginning of words they are added to 
^ as their fulcrum; the same letter without any vowel -sign 
designates, as in Sanskrit, a. The quantity of the vowels is 
not distinguished in Tibetan, except in Sanskrit words, where 
the long vowels are commonly expressed by adding underneath 
the letter ^. 



GEORGIAN. 



251 



GEORGIAN. 



.s 




a 


— 


- 


— 


3 


t 







3 


6 


J 


- 


h 


^ 


o 


c) 


? 


^ 


R 


- 


1) 


t\ 


^ t (-5) 




V 


a 


t3 


- 


- 


- 






6 


^ 


CO 


e 


I 


% 






3 


I 


*8 


9 


- 


- 


a 




? 


_ 


_ 


. _ 


i 


h 


e 




h 


^ 


k 


- 


I 


r 


i 


u 


C' 


i 


c 


- 


s 


z 


i ^ W 




P 


c/ 


t 


- 


- 


- 






P 


d 


t 


n 


s 


IC 






P' 


b 


p 


m 


— 


" 








Specii 


n e n. 







^ 



(1^(1 71^^(1^(1^ ^^ aait'ba-iDO 0^50 -jIj obco-il^bsoo? gbmoo^i^oo, IjbT)- 

m^bWOOb^bb bo:)Db D-jOOol^bOOb , L bbbO nOOOb-^ bO bWCpyi-^OOOUb . bODb-j-j^DO 

o^^djIj jSvCndooo , ;Ob Gioojl^b^Go -jPocodiG^-'j^^oool^bbo, -v)3^j') ^nij^^oo ;Ob 
aQajoj^obo 0(^8cn<;«:)bljb , S^-j^b^Gio ^d^lifjon^^Gr) ;Ob ^bbcn^d^^wobo ^jicn- 

Obljb O^Svl^OOblib :• 

Brosset, Elem. de la 1. Georg. 1837. p. 268. 



T'tiiidata da udlewelta moPameta Daivit da K'OsPanPinesi. 
Ese udlewelni moPameni iqwnes natesawit KarPvelni ^ sazyu^ar- 
tagan Apjazetisata y sanaj(ebta-gan Aryuetisa; aznaurni iqwnes 
Pomit^ da natesawni ertman-ertisani ^ udlewelni da dlierni brdo- 
lasa, mjedarni sumierni da gantkmulni tqobasa mPertasa, 

R2 



252 ISOLATED LANGUAGES. 

Remarks. 

The vowel e is described as a very short e and occurs 
especially after ic: ue. In the same way i mostly forms the 
second part of a diphthong a%, oi, but sometimes it occurs 
also alone at the end of words , as in saidumU; it is rendered 
in Russian by h or b. As all the characters and their order 
are derived, like the Armenian, from the Greek, the sign of 
the vowel u is originally a composition of o and i' (Greek ov). 
The Greek vowel v alone does not belong to the original 
Georgian alphabet, but is added afterwards after u (without 
any numerical value). It is found, however, in a few words, 
s^d (= swidi) , seven , and may then be rendered by u : sud. 
About the dry tenues , which we write h^ P etc., and which 
are common to the Georgian, Lasian, Mingrelian^ Suaniaiiy 
Abjasian, and other Caucasian languages, see above in the 
Ossetimi alphabet, p. 139. We are not quite sure of the pro- 
nunciation of that letter which we have rendered by j[. Euro- 
pean Grammarians usually write kh instead of our j[ and kkh 
instead of our j(. It seems that the latter is the corresponding 
fricative to g, and that it has the same pronunciation as that 
Kurd letter, which Mr. Lerch (see above p. 137; has rendered 
by K and which in this case would also be written more con- 
veniently ^ , the Semitic K being of quite a peculiar nature. 
The pronunciation of the letter called liae i is that of a 
feable h. The last letter with a numerical value (10,000) is the 
letter called hoe 3^ , the sound of which is not quite clear. 
The letter ^ /, and 2 i seem to have been invented only for 
the Ossetian alphabet, not for the Georgian, where it is, 
however, employed by some writers to render several difficult 
combinations of consonants more pronouncable. 



TUS. 



253 



TUS. 

The alphabet of this Caucasian language has been discussed 
by Schiefner, Bulletin de la classe histor. philol. de TAcad. 
de St. Petersbourg, tome XII. 1855. p. 103 sqq. It seems, 
that his letters: 



a 


q - X 


e 


h g Ml 


u 


c 3 < 




c ^ c 




t d th 




p b ph 



n 
?7^ 



h h 

X gh 

s z 



r I I 
w 



would correspond with the following letters of the Standard 
Alphabet: 



i 


I 


^ - 


T 


e 





k g 


h 


i 


u 


J 


c' 






t d 


r 






t d 


P 






p b 


r 



n 
m 



r I I 
w 



Remarks. 

The letters, which we write with ^ are apparently the same 
dry tenues, on which we have just spoken p. 247 (cf. p. 134). 
On the aspirated I see above p. 172. 



254 



ISOLATED LANGUAGES, 



ALBANIAN {Toskan dialect.). 



ov 



- 


- 


I - 


- 




X y 


- 


I r 


- 




^y fj 


vj 


G 


J 


^j 


T d 


V 




Q 


I 


71 h 


.u 


cp /? 


- 





e 

o 


- 


- 


- 


h 


- 


- 




a 


k 


9 


- 


X 


r 






e 


Jc 


9 


n 


s 


X 


y 


r 


u u 


t 


d 


n 


s 


z 


r 


I 




P 


b 


m 


f 


V 







Speci men. 
KJE vj£ (.chqev rdi vjg [igvd e f-ibQSiSQov, £ i xjs ^eve yjg do 
T£ ^QiiEiy vya vjg vin i ziy xJe xje axn/iia na )^jeQg. TIsq xeie 
TcovvE oa dJ€i.i hiive te di'iSal^E v ^f^iy , '^J£ ^^(^, i '<hiy vds dec 
€ I (.ihvi. I TQEUi dJalJE xJE GTLOV vde dev^ vovx oviibov^ no 
xaXd^L £ jodc vd! are te dEiu , e aiji e yjivE xoa xoobivE e e 

/LlOl^aQE vdE GTCiV TE TIQE, E £ ddvE vdE yQa TE TVQE 71EQ T£ 
QITOVQE. 

Popular tale. J. G. von Hahn, Albanes. Stud. II, p. 167. 



Ke ne onbret 7ide ne vend e mbreteron^ e i Ice ^ene Ice do te 

o (too o ' o o o 

vriteiy nga ne nip i tiy He lie akoma pa Ie?y. Per kete piine sa 
dyem beine te duvdize V etiy , ke kis ^ i stiy nde det e i tnbut. 
I treti dyal'e ke stiu nde det, nuk' timbut, po taldzi e hodi nd' 
dne te detit. e ati/e e, gene tsa tsobene e e muare nde staii te 
ture, e e ddne nde qra te ture per te riture. 



POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. MALAYAN. 255 



J 



Remarks. 

The Albcmian language is divided into two dialects, the 
Toskmi and the Gegan. The Toskan write with Greek letters, 
the Gegan with Roman. We follow the Toskan grammar of 
J. G. von Hahn in his learned Albanesische Studien^ Wien, 
1853. 2^ P. — In the Gegan dialect occurs the french nasa- 
lisation of vowels, expressed by the addition of ?', which we 
render by the sign -^ over the respective vowels. 



MALAYAN. 



T ^T 



U5 

Jo 



p - 


» 


- 


£ I 




- 


Z o 


- 


^ 


3 - 


- 


i 


^ o 


LT 


,^; 


V r 


- 


3 

1 



In foreign words. 

z t 

t t 



Li 



u^ 





« 


<1 


5 


- 


h 


- 


H 


> 


a 


a 


k 


9 


n 


- 


- 


X 


/ 


e e 





C 


} 


n 


- 


y 


t 


d s z 


I 


U il 


t 


<l 


- 


_ 


- 


- 








t 


d 


n 


s 


r I 


d 


3 8 z 






P 


b 


m 


■ 


w 


f 





I 



256 POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. 

Specimen. 

Makka manmluwaTkan cljya dqrripadda karajdanna padda 
bdran siydpa yan dikahandaklna ^ dan dimuliydkanna dkan bar an 
siydpa yan dikaliqndakma dqnan tdnan qodqratna, Bdran si- 
ydpa mqmmunuh or an dqnan tiydda sqbqnar Kaqiia niscdya di- 
siksa allah dqiian dpi ndraka yan dmat hdnat. 

Schleiermacher, de rinfluence de l.ecrit. sur le langu. p. 602. 604. 



Remarks. 

The Malays, like the Arabs, distinguish in writing only- 
three vowels, short and long, a d, i z, u u^ using the same 
signs for i and <?, I and ^, u and o, u and o; 1_^ is always 
a, but -^ is sometimes a, and sometimes the indistinct vowel, 
which might be transcribed e, or as we prefer it in this case a. 
The pronunciation of ^ and ^ is described as between our 
c jj and t d' ; it seems therefore that our nearest expression 
for them is c and ;. We write the merely Arabic sounds as 
we write them in Arabic. We have followed principally the 
exposition of the Malayan grammar by Schleiermacher in 
his book: de Vinfliience de Tecriture sur la langue^ 1835. p. 409 sqq. 
There, however, the two cerebral letters t and d are not 
mentioned. They are at present, as it seems, fallen into disuse; 
but the new invented sign 3 of the Malayan alphabet proves, 
that this letter d was used, at least in former times. The 
corresponding t was expressed by the Arabic -b, which after- 
wards was commonly confined to the words of Arabic origin, 
and replaced in genuine Malayan words by ^ t. 



BATAK. 



257 



■=■ o 



BATAK. 



-7^ 



-^ 


<,- 




<cr 


<:x- 


— 


-^ 


"o 


■2r 


C50 


oc 





^-7 



a 
e 



('«) 






ka ga 


na^-n 


ha^s 


ca Ja 


na 


- 


ta da 


na 


sa 


pa ba 


ma 


- 



ya 

ra la 

wa 



Remarks. 

There are three dialects of the Batak^ which is spoken in the 
north of Sumatra, viz. the Toba, the Mandailin or Ankola, and 
the Dairi. The characters given above belong to the Toba 
dialect, except ^^ ca, which occurs only in the southern 
branch of the Mandailm dialect. In the same dialect ^"^^^ is 
written instead of '^^^ m, ^~^ or ''■7> instead of "^^ ha 
or ka, <^ for '^^ ma, ^^ for "o na, <S^ for "^ sa, 
^^^ for "^^^^ ya, '^=^ for ~^ i and ^-^ (north) or "^^-^ 
(south) for -==- 10. The western Toba and the Dairi dialect 
use "^^ instead of 5^ t, and (3^ instead of ^^"^ iv. The 
vowel system in pronunciation and in writing is almost the 
same as in Javanese. The initial vowels a, i, u have their 
peculiar signs, the middle or final vowels (except a) are ex- 
pressed by little symbols added to the principal characters. 
The vowel a is not expressed at all, but is inherent in every 
consonantal character , if it stands alone and is not followed 



258 POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. 

by the sign — ^, which indicates the absence of every vowel. 
As in Javanese, there is a peculiar sign for the final n as 
well as for the feeble final aspiration, both as it seems, in 
imitation of the Sanskritic anusvdra and visarga. The letters 
n^ w^ y occur in the Mandatlin^ not in the Toba dialect. 
The Dairi has no n; it uses the characters of iv and 3/, but 
only instead of '^'^ , which letter is pronounced h. As in other 
languages the present pronunciation deviates in several cases 
from the old orthography, g, /, b are pronounced at the end 
of words k, c, p. In the eastern Toba dialect and in some 
other parts of the island the r is pronounced in a guttural 
manner, and ought then to be written r, if compared with 
other dialects, h in Toba, if initial, is sounded k] in Dawi this 
is always the case, and in Mandailin also, if final or following 
immediately a consonant. Before ^, ^, p, s the nasals ^, n, m 
are pronounced respectively k, t^ p; n before p becomes p, 
not t. In the Mandailin alone the nasals are not changed. 
Before g ^ j, d, b the nasals n, n^ m pass into the respective 
class of the preceding consonant. At the end of words the 
nasals n, n, m before h are pronounced respectively M, tt, pp, 
as likewise k, t, p before /?, with the exception that t-h or p-li 
are sometimes pronounced kk. n before Z, r, m, as well as r 
before / are changed into the following letter.— All these change- 
ments of pronunciation are sometimes neglected in writing, in 
order to be understood by all the Bataks, and sometimes, they 
are expressed according to the diflferent dialects. The tran- 
scription will follow in most cases, especially for linguistical 
purposes, the etymological orthography. We owe our remarks 
on the Battak^ to Dr. Land, Secretary of the Netherlandish 
Bible-Society at Amsterdam, the exposition on the subject by 
H. Neubronner van der Tuuk not being in our hands. 



JAVANESE. 



259 



JAVANESE. 



i " 


(Kin am 


on,^ 


(un ; 


— 


am m 


1 Ur- 


QOl (IK 


(om 


— 


CUIJI 




■ Odfl— o.iin-2 


0^ d^Jl 

asm (LCI 

O (Ol 


(innn 

(Kl 

(e 


(wi 


(lOJl 
O 


A. 

OK 

o 


e 


^ ^ 


?^ 


^ o» 


- 


J / 


a,a 


c J 


n 


- 


y 


- 


e 


.^ ^ 


n 


s 


r 


- 


i u 


^ d 


n 


s 


I 


z 


' 


p b 


m 


- 


V 


/ 



Specimen. 

Ne^ari Bali vonten tigan; hudinnijpun lankun demiiii rosq. 
^adamellannipim sahin. Namannipun jjqkq Pirannon. Miren 
rahar^ yen neqari Messir havis teda. J aka Pirannon la/jen hesas 
daten negari Messir; hektq dagahnan pantun hutavi huvos. Saren 
dumugi negari Messir , kapangis tiyan dusun hin Karas. 
JavaanscheSpraakkunst door Cornets de Groot uitg. door T. Roorda. 1843. p. 68 



Remarks. 

The system of vocalisation is essentially the same as in the 
Devandgari. The vowel e does not occur in the beginning of 
words. The vowel a which after any consonant is not written 
at all, has two different sounds, according to certain rules; 
the one is our pure a, the other a somewhat closer and there- 
fore more indistinct a approaching to our o, as o> approaches 
to an indistinct e. We write therefore those two sounds a 



260 



POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. 



and e. The sign ~ Is described as a final n; it seems to 
imitate in its figure the Sanskrit anusvdra^ but without its 
peculiar nature; we prefer therefore, not to distinguish it in 
our transcription from the full consonantal n. The final letter 
'I corresponds with the Sanskritic visarga s. About the two 
cerebral letters n and s (s), we think that T. Roorda is 
right in what he observes in his edition of Cornets de Groot's 
Javaansche Spraakkunst, Amsterdam 1843. p. 8. As the no- 
tation of the final n^ the different notations of r also seem to 
be imitated from the Devandgari^ and the two signs ^ and ^ 
called Pa-cere and Na-lelet seem to represent the Sanskritic 
r and I. The full vowel characters are sometimes used as 
initials in original Sanskrit words. Instead of them the letter 
h is generally used with its respective vowel sign. It seems 
preferable to transcribe this h^ although it is at present scar- 
cely audible. 



D A Y A K (Borneo). 



a 

a 

e 

i u 



k g 
t d 



n 


h 


- 


- 


n 


s 


m 


- 



Specimen. 

At07i olo id' a tempon anake Jiatiia dua biti. Dan id'ahiisu intu 
qwen tq hamau dengan bapa: Apan, tena akanku bagin ramo 
idq baris ayuhku. Dan iq membagi akan qwen tq penataue. 
Maka d'aton arq andau limba tq , anak idq busu menampunan 
kara ranio^ dan hagoet akan lewif^ awah kedau, hetq iq menanan 
ramoe aivi kapapa9i gawie. Luc. 15, 11 — 13. 

U. C. von der Gabelentz: Grammatik der Dajak-Sprache. Leipzig. 
1852. p. 45. 



I 





MAKASSAR 






MAKASSAR. 


— 


ys^s 






^— — -N 


•• 


^ 


^,^ 


— 


-^ 


/^ 


-^,^ 




•N 


^tx 


^,^ 




^ 


^ 


^,^ 


a 


- 






e 


ka 


ga 


na 


i ti 


ia 


da 


na 




ta 


da 


na 




pa 


ha 


ma 



261 



o?> 



ha 



ya 

ra la 
iva 



^P Specimen. 

lya-mimie ankdna-kdnai imu-pauwanna Dayalankdra. Ala 
siydpa- siydpada karden lompo^ annakeya makota^ annindioan 
irawdnan parentdna D'ayalankdra. Na and'o Dayalankdra, tau 
Idmhusw pamdv^ na ddele^ hit ar anna ri sikamma hone-huUdna^ 
dyagdan ri-pata.rintina^ riyanroh-kemokanna^ ri-pasarihattananna. 
Pdssala\ JSa ni-surokdiia-mo pau-pauivamia. Niya> se^re ka- 
rden ri parasdnana, niydrena T'ina-Sumpe. Naiya arenna ka- 
rdena^ nikdna Rdda-Adah; madompo kakaraenanna , madd'han 
irateyandnin , siyagdn ri hawa anih; na kaleleyari-mo hirvtdna 
ta>se>re-ta>se're parasanan, lamhusuna siyagdan lahona ri-sikamma 
pakereka, siyagdan ri-tau-kasiasiya. 

Matthes, Makassaarsche Spraakkunst. 1858. p. 14. 



Remarks. 

The Makassar language is spoken in the southern part of 
the island Celebes and partly in the small neighbouring island 



262 POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. 

Saleyer. The vowel a is inherent in every simple character; 
the other vowels are expressed by points added to their re- 
spective consonantal characters. There are no peculiar initial 
vowel signs , but the character '^ serves as a fulcrum for 
every initial vowel. We need not transcribe it. Final nasals 
are regarded rather as modifications of the preceding vowel 
and are for this reason usually not written at all, or repre- 
sented sometimes by a common sign ::i, placed above the syl- 
labic sign, and pronounced at the end of a word always n^ 
and before other consonants n, n^ n or w, according to the 
class of the following letter, imitating in this respect the use 
of the Sanskritic anusvdra'^omi. Decidedly long vowels occur 
very seldom in Makassar and almost alone in foreign words. 
But every vowel, short or long, may be pronounced with a 
sudden closure of the throat after it, which corresponds very 
nearly with the Chinese zi^ tone (see above p. 232), and which 
we represent best, as Mr. Land proposes, by adding our 
Jiamza ^ after the vowel, as we have done it in those Semitic 
languages, where j< or * (hamza) closes a syllable. It seems, 
that in Makassar this final ', which is not written, replaces 
always, as in Chinese, the Samoyetic (p. 219), the eastern Po- 
lynesian (p. 259) and other languages, a dropped consonant, 
especially k^ which reappears, when a vowel is added, for ex. 
balla' and a becomes hallaha^ whilst balan and a remains halana. 
The letter li is not found in the older Makassar waiting; it 
has been introduced only in later times, and principally used in 
Malayan or Arabic words, hardly in pure Makassar words. 
The word-accents may be added on a much larger scale, as 
it is done in the standard works on the Makassar language 
by Dr. B. F. Matthes. 



DUGIS. 



263 



^- 



^ 



B U G I S. 









>s 


</> 


— 




•^ 


^^ 


— 


<^ 




-'>^ 


•^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


\> 




•s^ 




^K^) 



a 
a 

e 



k g 

t d' 

t d 

V b 



n 


h 


. 


n 


' 


y 


n 


s 


r I 


m 


- 


w 



nk 
nt' 
nr 
mp 



Remarks. 

The same sign, called anta , which in the Makassar indicates 
a final nasal, is in the Bugis a vowel sign designating an in- 
distinct sound approaching to a, and therefore transcribed by 
us a. Four signs are added to the Makassar alphabet to ex- 



press the combinations of iika, nta, 



nra 



mpa. 



There is no 



nta, which seems to be replaced by nra. These combinations 
occur also in the beainnino^ of words and remind us of the 
same fact in many African languages, ng ^ nd\ nd, mb have 
no peculiar signs and when they occur in the middle of words, 
the nasal, as in the Makassar, is not indicated at all. We owe 
these remarks to the personal information of Dr. Matthes , who 
is scientifically and practically fully acquainted with the dif- 
ferent languages of Celebes^ where he has lived many years, as 
an agent of the Netherlandish Bible Society at Celebes. 



264 



POLYNESIAN or MALAYAN LANGUAGES. 



EASTERN POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 

These languages belong to the poorest with respect to the 
number of sounds they use. None of those which are hitherto 
known, have the letter 5, nor y ^ nor j|^, nor any aspirate, nor 
even any media, with some rare exceptions. They have the 
three tenues A;, ^, ^, pronounced rather softly and even of 
these the Tahiti wants the ^, the Sandwich the t. But we 
think that we have to regard not only the hamza ^ as a 
softening of A;, but also v as the soft correspondent of jt?, and 
r or I of ^; for we find in the language of New Zealand r 
and d changing with one another; the Sandwich has I, but 
no r, the Raro-Tonga has h, but no v, and other languages 
have IV (perhaps z^? ?) instead of v. Most of them have the three 
nasals n, ?^, m, and besides h. Some distinguish / and A, 
which, however, change most frequently with one another; 
the Raro-Tonga and the Gamhier have neither. We possess an 
instructive comparison of several of these languages by B. 
Gaussin {Du dialecte de Tahiti, de celui des ties Marquises et 
en general de la langue Polynesienne ^ Paris. 1853). According 
to this work, we give the following alphabets in our transcription. 
The vowels are in all the same: a, e, ^, 0, u. They are very 
rarely decidedly long, a, e^ z, 0, u. Besides the short and 
long, Mr. Gaussin distinguishes also two accents, which 
he calls ^^grave" and "aigue" without describing them nearer 
nor designating them by peculiar signs. The consonants of 
the different languages treated by him are as follows. The 
feeble guttural, which he calls "explosive pharyngienne" or 
"postero-gutturale" seems to be our "hamza" \ 



New - Z e aland. 



Raro Tonga. 



k 


- 


n 


t 


r,d 


n 


p 


N, 


m 



k 


» 


t 


r 


P 


h 



m 



EASTERN POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 



265 





G- am 


bier. 


k 


> 


n 


t 


r 


n 


p 


V 


m 





Ta 


hit i. 




- 


i 


_ 


h 


t 


r 


n 


- 


P 


V 


m 


/ 



Marquesas^ 
north-western part. south-eastern part. 



k 


' 


n 


h k 


i 


- 


h 


t 


r 


n 


t 


r 


n 


- 


p 


V 


m 


V 
Sandioich. 


V 


m 


J 



k 


•> 


- 


- 


I 


n 


V 


w 


m 



The general system of consojiants of these different languages 
would therefore be the following: 



k 


i 


n 


h 


t 


r,l,d 


n 




p 


v^iv^b 


m 


f 



Specimen of the Tahiti language. 

Ua hoe e toopiti tau ta'ata i tai e hi i te va; 'o Roo te voa 
te tahi^ >o Teahoroa te voa o te hoe. Ua tiini i ta raua 
matau n raro 'i te moana; fifi atiira te matau i te roiirii o 
taua atua ra o Rtiahatu; parau ihora raua: e va; ma huti 
ihora e famtata aera n te pae va^a^ hio ihora raua e tamta, 
te mavera te 7'ouru. Gaussin, p. 255. 



266 



AUSTRALIAN or PAPUAN LANGUAGES. 



ILLITEEATE LANGUAGES. 



AUSTRALIAN or PAPUAN LANGUAGES, 



SOUTH AUSTRALIAN. 

(Adelaide.) 

ad k n y 

e t n r I 

i u p m w 

at an oi vi 



Remarks. 

We follow the work of T e i c h e 1 m a n n and S c li a r m a n n 
of the Lutheran Miss. Soc. , Outlines of a Grammar^ Voca- 
hidari) and PJiraseology of the aboriginal language of South 
Australia^ spoke?i in and around Adelaide. 1846. The anthors 
conform to the Standard Alphabet w^ith the exception of our 
?i, for which they write ng. 





ANN A TOM (New 


Hebrides). 






a kg 


n 


h 


y 




e 


f d 


n 


s 


r I 




i 


u p b 


m 


/ « 


10 






ts dz ny 


' 


Vide: H. C. 


von de r Gabelentz, Die 


Melane 


sischen Spi 


-achen. 1860. 


p. 65 



MARE. VITL 



267 



Specimen. 

Is eteug natimi is ethi^ is ero inhalav atamain o im. Is ika 
a inharei ehele etman : At ekuiak, alupai nyqk nahaidzi inpadiain 
unyuni imtak. Is atiakoai ira rait inpadiain o un aien. Is zvai 
ti pa?i itag nodiat is eti alupat^ is astsapig nain nidzi iiai asena 
un a inharei J um atna o un^ um apan antaka pege itag agen^ 
is um eduaraprap inpadiain o un aien an nedo auati ahnan. 



MARE (Loyalty Islands). 



a k g 


n 


I /' 


y 


kh 


e t d 


n 


s z 


r I 


th 


i u P ^ 


m 


- V 


IV 


ph 


ts dz ny 






See: von der Gabelentz, B'le 


Melan. 


Spr. p. 170 







Specimen. 

Kei Makaze dzie ono7ne, kei nuponi ko. Inu Yehova 0)io re 
Makaze nupo, inu toedzakore nvpo wanei Aiphiti, na yara me- 
nene. Nupo ake iro ne makaze menu, ekewe ne inu. 

Exod. 20, 1. 



VITI 


(Fiji Islands^ 


). 




a a 


k ng 


n 


- - 


y 


j e e 


t nd 


n 


6- d 


r 


i i u u 


- mh 


m 


V 


w 




p^ f^ m foreign words. 








S2 





268 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



Specimen. 

E ndua na tamata sa lewe ma na liivenatanane. A^ sa kaya 
vet tamana ko koya sa none vei raw. Tamangu^ solia mai vei 
au nai votavota ni yau sa vota me nongu. A sa votu vei ran 
na nona yau. A sa tawa vunga na boni sa mari sa soiigona- 
vata na nona yau kedena ko koya na none ohgo^ ka lako iani 
kina vanua vakayawa^ ka sa hiuta waleha kina na nona yau e 
nai valavala didroi. Ev. Luc. 15, 11 — 13. 

Remarks. 
The Rev. D. Hazlewood in his Co?npendious Grammar of 
the Feejeean language^ Vewa. 1850. writes q, g^ d, c, h^ j 
instead our ng^ n, nd^ d, mh^ j. The vowels are short or 
long ; but they are not distinguished in the Grammar of Haz- 
lewood, nor by H. C. von der Gabelentz, in his work on 
the Melanesian languages, from which (p. 63) we have taken 
the specimen. Hazlewood remarks that his k and q represent 
two sounds each, the former k and in certain cases ^, the 
latter ng and sometimes nk. The combinations ng, nd, mh seem 
to be only modifications of the respective explosives. We must 
prefer however to transcribe these combinations of two sounds, 
according to the pronunciation, by two letters, as we tran- 
scribe the same combinations in the African languages. 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 

SUAHELI (KI-SUAHELI). 



a 


k 


9 


e e 






i . ic 


t 


d 


short and long. 






ai (ei) au oi 


P 


b 


Two clicks. 


ts 


d 



n 


s z 


n 


s z 




^ d 


m 


f V 



y 

r I 
io(w) 



ts dz dy ts dz 



SUAHELI. MAKUA. 



269 



Specimen. 

Mudnso lalikua ■neno, na neno lalikua hia Muhgu^ na Mungu 
alikua neno. Hilo ndilo lalikua mudnso kua Mungu. Kulla 
kitu dzalifonioa kuakwe; na isipokudi.^ hakikua kitu kimoza ki- 
lidzo fdnioa. Ev. Job. 1, 1—3. 



Remarks. 
Krapf, in his Outline of the elements of the Kisudheli lan- 
guage. Tubingen 1850. writes n.^ c, s,j^ 5, t., d, ^? /? ^ in- 
stead of our 91^ j^ 5, z\ z, 0, d, ts^ dz^ dz. Two clicks 
which have been observed by Dr. Krapf in the Sudheli are 
not written nor described in his publications. We prefer^ as 
we have stated already above (p. 10), to write ^s^ and dz in 
the ilHterate, especially in the African languages, instead of 
c" and /, as in the Asiatic languages, because the origin of 
these compound sounds from simple gutturals is not traceable 
in all cases, and because there are no simple signs of an in- 
digenous alphabet to be rendered, and finally, because we are 
now able to quote Grout, Appleyard, Kolle, Schon, 
Schlegel, Zimmermann, Barth and others as authorities 
in our favour for the same transcription. 



MAKUA (Mosambique). 



a 




e e 





i 


10 


Short and 


long. 



k g 



t d 
p b 

ts dz ts dz 



h - 

s z 

s z 

f V 



y 1 

r I 
w 



270 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



Remarks. 

We give this alphabet from oral communications made by 
Prof. W. Peters. Cf. The languages of Mosamhique drawn 
up from the Mss. of Dr. W. Peters by Dr. W. Bleek. 
London 1856. In this book our letters ^, e, n^ s^ z, I are 
rendered by e^ e, 7^, s, s, hi. The letter I is not identical 
with the composition hi, but resembles the Welsh U, which 
we have also rendered by I. The middle tongue touches the 
hard palate and at the same time the breath is thrust out on 
both sides of it, producing a similar friction as the letter ^. 



TSUANA (SE-TSUANA, BE-TSUANA). 



U 



at au ei eio oi ou 



h - 

t d 

p h 

ts ts. 





h 


n 


X r 


n 


s - 


m 


f ^ 



y 1 

r I 

w 



In foreign words: dzQ) 



Remarks. 

Cf. Appleyard, Kafir Grammar 1850. p. 50. He writes ng, 
kh^ g, G or ch, j, tl instead of our n^ j, y^^ts.^ dz, ?.We have the 
pleasure to state, that on a later occasion, viz. in the Corres- 
pondence hetween the Committee of the Soutli African Auxiliary 
Bible Society and various Missionaries and others, relative to 
the translation , printing and circulation of the scriptures in the 
native languages of South Africa, Cape town, 1857. p. 107. 
Appleyard himself recommends the writing of ts^ dz^ 1. 



TSUANA. KAFIR. 
KAFIR, Zulu (Afna-Zuhi) dialect. 



271 



short and long. 



at aic ao eu 









h 


k 


9 


n 


X y 


ts 


dz 


ny 


s z 


t 


d 


. n 


s z 


p 


b 


m 


f « 



Clicks: Pal. Cer. Dent. Later, 
I I I II 



19 19 



in 



171 



'9 

in 



"9 
nil 



Specimen. 

Uietswayo no Mbulazi uhuzalwa hwaho intanga inye. Baluke 
ngonina. Uietsivayo wa zalwa hwa Nmmhazi. Umbidazi loa 
zalwa hwa Monad. Kodwa ba tangene ngoyise; uyise icabo mimye. 
Uyise ka beka nkosi pakatl kivabo; ngokiiba ba be isiiiuku, be 
baningi. U te e se yi beka inkosi fokati kwabo^ ba se be nako 
uktcvukelana ; ngokuba ba se be kulile borike. 

Grout, Zulu-Grammar. 1859. p. 387. 

Remarks. 
With reference to the clicks, which the Kafirs have taken 
from the Hottentots, we have given our opinion above p. 80. 81. 
We have been sorry to remark that one more has been added 
to the numerous proposals for the rendering of the clicks. 
The Rev. H. Hahn, of the Rhenish Mission, having received 
the commission to send a set of types of his own choice from 
Europe for the Missionary Press of Cape -town, has added to 
them his new invented signs for the clicks. As we are unable 
to discover any particular advantages in these signs, and do 
not therefore expect their being extensively adopted, we do 
not feal inclined to recede from our own proposal. We leave 
it, however, to others to decide whether our strokes should be 



I 



272 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



lengthened a little either above or below, in order to distinguish 
them still more from the other characters. Beyond the lateral 
fricative ?, which we have already found in the Makua and 
Tmana languages, we have to notice in the Kaiir at least 
one lateral more, which we write T. This latter one is pro- 
nounced in the same way as ?, only more forward in the 
mouth. We may compare the difference of I and X with that 
of ji; and ^, or with that of s and the Polish s (our s). In 
earlier publications we find our letter I represented by tl^ Jil^ 
't^ jl, and our letter T by tl, thl^ dhl, hi, Y, ^l; and in the 
Ama-iiOsa dialect some writers distinguish even a third lateral 
fricative, which they render by khl^ k^l^ jl. The author has 
only been able to distinguish two sounds in the pronunciation 
of native Zulu Kafirs (see above p. 80) , and agrees in this 
respect essentially with the observations made by the Rev. 
L. Grout, Missionary of the American Board, in his valuable 
Gramma7^ of the Zulu language^ Natal and London 1851, p. 17, in 
which he has already introduced the signs I and t, Mr. Ap- 
ple yard, in the above mentioned Correspondence etc. p. 108 
recommends the sign Z, but retains besides the combinations 
kl and dt It seems to us, that the sound rendered by kl, 
khl^ jl, which, according to Boyce, Appleyard and others, 
is only heard, when the letter t is preceded by n or ?^, ought 
not to be distinguished from the latter. It is a natural phonic 
effect to hear and even to pronounce nkl and ntf, in conversa- 
tion, instead of n1 and nt\ and it is the same mistake which 
has induced others to write tl also behind vowels instead of 
2 or r. The lateral aspiration might even be uttered without 
any decided Z- movement of the tongue; it is then nearly the 
same sound as the Arabic u^ (only without emphasis), a rather 
difficult letter which the old Arabic orthoepists describe as an 
""etnphattc aspirated /." It might therefore be desirable to fix a 
peculiar sign for this lateral aspiration, if this did not go be- 
yond our practical wants. 



KAFIR. HERERO, 



273 



KAFIR, iiOsa (Ama iiOsa) dialect. 
The alphabet is the same as the Z«^?z^-alphabet. 

Specimen. 

Lite ilizwi lika-Tiiio, uhuiala kwalo ukuhgena ema-iiOseni, 
lancjena hiva-inik<x ; lalipetwe ngu-Nyengana, umfo ivapeseya kwol- 
wanTe. Wayete yena esekwelinye ilizwe^ weva hisitwa , Kuko 
isizwe esingama-iiOsa. Waza wati kekaloku, wanokunga anasu- 
mayela ilizwi lika-Tiiio kweso-sizwe. Wasel eiela intela ke kwa- 
hantu ahakidu; wasuka wawela ulwante^ wapumela nganeno apa 
Wati, akiifika^ icaniedwa kakulit ngama-Bulii. 

Appleyard, The Kafir language, p. 369. 



HEREEO (O-TYI-HERERO). 



a 


k 


9 


n 


e 


t 


d 


n 


i ic 


P 


h 


m 


short and long. 


ty 


dy 


ny I 



h 

s z 

- I 

ts dz 



y 

r (i) 



Specimen. 

Yehova omurise oandye, liina tyi mee hepa. E men dyi rarisa 
moutsuta uondyoura. E men dyi tsike komeva uokusuva. Omuinyo 
oandye E ma tarareka; E men dyi tsikire Ena re mondamho 
yousemba. Ps. 23, 1 — 3. (Hahn p. 339.) 

Etuako ndza ri notyizire ty ovinza ovihuze , mhia s okuya^ ka 
ra ri notyinza otyini. Ozombura azelie va punguhire ozombungu- 
hiro otyingazo, nu ka za sorere okukohora imba^ mbe ze pungu- 
hirire, Hebr. 10, 1. (Hahn p. 116.) 



274 AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 

Remarks. 
The Rev. H. Hahn has published two valuable larger works 
on this language, a Grammar (1857) and Biblical Stories (1861). 
We regret sincerely, that the orthography of the latter is not only 
essentially differing from that of the former, but even less accep- 
table. The question is only about the sounds , which were first 
written: n, tj^ dj^ nj^ y, t^ d, nd, s^' z by the Rhenish Missionaries, 
for which Mr. Hahn gives in his Grammar the letters n, ^, g^ n^ y, 
t^ d or dz^ n or ndz, 5, z, and in his last publication: n^ ty, dy^ n^ y, 
t, c?, n, 5, z. With regard to s and z he remarks in the Grammar 
p. 4, that their pronunciation approaches to the English hard 
th and soft th^ owing to the custom of the people to cut out 
the two upper front -teeth in form of an angle A. This very 
plausible explication accounts for the fact, that our common 
s and z does not exist at all in the Herero, and justifies us 
at the same time to retain the common signs of s and z not- 
withstanding, instead of ^ and d^ which would else be re- 
quired according to the Standard alphabet. On a separate 
leaf printed 1861 Mr. Hahn raises doubts respecting his own 
former explication, because he had since remarked the same 
lisping sounds behind t^ d, and 7^, and he uses now a peculiar 
diacritical sign for s and z and the compounds ts^ dz^ nz. 
We cannot find the reason he gives for this new invention 
sufficient, and would decidedly prefer the old fashion. On 
the other hand we adopt his proposal to write ty and dy in- 
stead of H and ^, the more so because we prefer in general, 
according to our principles, and especially with regard to illit- 
terate languages, to resolve all consonantal diphthongs into 
their component parts. The natural consequence is that we 
write also ny intead of n. But we keep the distinction of n and 
n, as it is done in the Grammar, were it only in order to avoid 
the very common mistake to pronounce the two letters ng as a 
simple w, which latter in many other languages precedes vowels 
immediately without an intermediate g. 



FERNANDO PO, IBO. 



275 



FERNANDO P 0. 



a 


k g 


n 


e 


t d 


n 


i u 


p h 


m 


short and long. 


ts dz 


hw 


au 







h - 



f ^ 



y 

r I 

10 



Specimen. 
Lite lula hohalio hoha lyicci^ hwaei na a hohali ribi o bunutsu 
hwabe^ ketsi o bonutsu bwabe la puled? atsi na batsi a takeidi 
oil, nkwai inaba mpio^atsi naba o erio a bakoto ata ba bote. 

Matth. 5, 13. 

Remarks. 
The alphabet and specimen are taken from the ^Introduction 
to the Fernandiaa tongue^ by John Clarke (Wesl. Miss.) 
2^ ed. 1848. Mr. Clarke writes n, tsh, j instead of our n, 
ts^ dz. 



a a 



e <? 



e e 
^ i I 
a e etc. 
ai ei oi 







IBO. 



k g 

t d 

p b 

ts dz kp gb ny 



Tones. 
High tone a' e' etc. 
Middle tone a e etc. 
Low tone «^ e^ etc. 



n 


h - 


n 


s z 
s z 


m 


f V 



y 

r I 



276 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



Specimen. 

Mbe' ya lo elite any a ya na ncle soga ya, ya se' ngo'zi unu 
nde na digi ihinye idzi hd ma itnu nwe' ald'eze Tsu'ku, ngo'zi 
mm nde ne ehe' uhi'a ma unu ga cUsio'tsi. Ngo'zi unu, nde 
c'lgu' na c'lgu' ubu'a, ma afo' gedzu unu. Ngo'zi unit, mbe' ma'du 
ga dkpo' unu asi' , mbe' dgalian citso' unu, na ebi'rihd ma mebo' 
unu na iliu'n even dkpo' unu aha'n doka ndzo' na ihi Qpa'ra wo'ke. 

Luke 6, 20-22- 

Remarks. 

We give the alphabet and specimen according to the Gram- 
matical Elements of the Ibo language by the Rev. J. F. Schon 
and the native Missionary S. Crowther's Isimma-Ibo Primer, 
revised by the Rev. J. Chr. Taylor, having changed only 
their ds into dz. In the compounds kp and gb of this and 
other African languages, the component parts are so intimately 
connected, that they are regarded almost as guttural modifi- 
cations of j9 and b, in a similar way as we speak of guttural 
(emphatic) dentals in the Semitic languages. We prefer however 
to write both letters in the same way as it has been done 
before us. About the peculiar intonations represented by the 
accents ' and % see our remarks on the Yoruba. 



e 
a a 
e e odd 
i I u u 

a e I it 
a e etc. 

au ai oi 6l ei ei 
Tones: a' a a^ 



YORUBA. 

k g 
t d 



n 


h 


- 




V 


V 




s 




n 








s 


- 


m 


f 


- 



p & 

ts dz kp gb 



y 

r 

w 






YORUBA. ^ 277 



Specimen. 

O'kori lid' li omg'kori medzi. Eyi ahiivo ni mo' wo ivi fu 
haha' re^ kpe' ^ Baba'^ fu mi ni iwo ogu' ti o tori' mi. 0' si"" 
kpt oJiu ini' re" fu ivo . Ki^ isi^ to' idzg' melokd li elu eyi.^ eyi 
omo'kori aburo ko' olm ghogho ti o' ni dzo' , o' si^ mu o\ia re) 
kpo lo'h si' ilu o^kere ; ni ih& ni o' ghe' ncd ghogho ini' re^ ni 
inakiina. Luke 15, 11-13. 



Remarks. 
We owe our acquaintance with the Yoruha language prin- 
eipally to the vakiable works of the native Missionary Rev. 
S. Crowther C^lfZi'a^i/e) (Grammar and Vocabulary 1852) and 
lastly of the Rev. T. J. Bo wen (Grammar and Dictionary. 
1858, pubHshed by the Smithsonian Institution). Their alphabet 
exhibits the letters a, e, e^ p, ar)(an)^ ^(^^j ^^^>)j ^ (^) •, z, c 
or fe, dz (j) instead of our e, e^ e, o, dy n; s, 0, ts^ dz. The 
vowel e is not noticed by Crowther; it seems to be very rare 
and is described by Bowen as the "obscure sound of u in hut., 
in mothery The rj(n^ ng) on the end of syllables "is equi- 
valent to the French n in hoii^ This is the same nasalisation 
of a vowel, which Mr. Schon in Ibo has already rendered 
according to the Standard alphabet by a, e^ etc. "Before a 
consonant, that is, at the beginning of a word or syllable, it 
has a stronger sound, nearly equivalent to the EngHsh ng in 
songP That is our n. The compound ts is not mentioned 
by Bowen and seems to be almost unknown in native words. 
As to the pecuHar intonation of vowels, which is identical with 
that in /<^o, Ewe and other languages, "there are three primary 
tones; the middle tone is the ordinary tone of the voice without 
inflexion ; the acute and grave tones are simply the rising and 
falHng inflexions of elocutionists; in the Yoruha and other 
cognate languages however, they are employed to distinguish 
words which are spelled alike , but have different meanings." 



278 AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 

We find here in a smaller extent the same principle of into- 
nation as in the Chinese. The middle tone requires no ex- 
pression in wriling; the two other tones have been indicated 
by Crowther, Schon and Bowen, as the rising and falHng 
Chinese tone used to be, by the acute and grave accents ' 
and \ over the vowel. We have already suggested (p. 231), 
and more amply discussed in the above quoted treatise, our 
scruples against this use of the European accents, which have 
quite a diflPerent meaning, and the former of which is indispen- 
sable in every language to indicate the common word-accent. 
Mr. Bowen has met with this very difficulty also in the Yorvha 
language J where the word -accent is entirely different from 
the intonation. He distinguishes therefore the former from the 
latter by placing it on the right side of the vowel, ex. a'daha^ 
eda'^ ali(fa!^ d'lasa'ra, oni'ba'ta. In the running text and in the 
Dictionary Mr. Bowen generally omits the word-accent and it 
seems that it would not be difficult to fix those cases where it 
ought to be put and where not. But we should decidedly pro- 
pose, that the word-accent be placed, also in the African lan- 
guages, over the vowel, according to the usual custom, and the 
tones on the right side of the vowel, without altering the shape 
given to them by Mr. Bowen. We gain by this mode of writing 
the full harmony with the only languages, which exhibit the 
same tones, viz. the Chinese and cognate languages, where the 
San' or ascending tone is represented by the acute, and the 
Khyy} or descending tone by the grave accent, placed on the 
right side of the vowel (see above p. 232). We should con- 
sequently write the above quoted words: ddaha, edd^^ alufd^ 
d'lasdra, onibdta^ or if we omit the word -accent, where it is 
not necessary: ddaha, edd> ^ aliifdy a'lasdra, onibdta. Mr. 
Bowen has introduced a new diacritical sign ^ over those 
vowels, which are pronounced so short as to be scarcely per- 
ceptible. We have used in those cases, as in the Slavonic 
and other languages, the particular sign of shortness ^. 



EWE. 



279 



EWE, 


Anlo (Aongla)'^\di\QQi. 




e 


- 


- 


h 




a a 


k g 


n 


X r 




e Q 
e e 


t d 


n 


s z 
s z 


y 

r I 


i t u u 


p h 


m 


f V 


w u 


d e % 6 u 
del etc. 


ts dz kp gh ny 




Tones. 






High: a' e' i' etc. 






Middle: a e i etc. 






Low: a> e" i" etc. 











Specimen. 

Se ghli alakle le koihe deka. Se ewa'dzi vio ante umi eve^ na 
alakle to deka. Alakle ghlo na se, hena enovi enye. Eyia devio 
no alakle gho fam, owa'tu atvo na alakle. Eyia gbo efa ghlo 
na se hena: nuka woghli ameke le kowe deka mdhctf meghlie 
71 any i le kowea me .^ eW vinyeo kpatd. 

J. B. Schlegel, Schliissel zur Ewe-Sprache, p. 148. 



Remarks. 

We have applied the same system of orthography, which 
the Rev. J. B. Schlegel — in accordance with the Standard 
Alphabet — made use of in his able Grammar and Dictionary 
of the Ewe language (Stuttgart. 1857). The obscure vowel - 
sound, of which he speaks p. 6 seems to be the same as the 
vowel a of Mr. Bowen in the Yoruha. We represent it, 
as in the Yontha, by e in the rare cases where it occurs. 
The letters j( and y are remarkable, and still more so the 
letter w^ which seems to be met with only in the Eive^ 



280 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



Akra, and a few cognate languages. The pure breath, says 
Mr. Schlegel, passes silently through the lips as if you slightly 
blow off something from the paper before you; the teeth have 
nothing to do with it, nor is it a sonant, but a mute letter; 
the mouth takes the position of the German w. We cannot 
but approve the rendering of this labial breathing by ^i\ 
Others have tried to substitute / as basis ; but the entire 
absence of a dental friction leads us more naturally to w. 
Instead of ds of Mr. Schlegel we have to write dz. 



AKRA (GA). 



a a 




k g 


n 


h 




e e Q 
e e 


Q 
6 


t d 


n 


s z 
s 


y 

r I 


i I 


U V 


p h 


m 


f - 


w w 


a e I u 
a e % etc. 




ts dz 


kp gh km 




Tones. 










High: a' 


e' etc. 








Middle: a 


e etc. 








(Low: a> 


e"" etc.) 











Specimen. 

Osu ni> ameyo, ni ameyamc le, ake lumo eha; si eke, ayatfa 
tit ahdle. Ni amebabua ohlahl hii le ana. Keke ni" amebayin 
ameyatfa til le. Beni fe se le, ake ayafla lumo le, ni amete 
ameyaflale. Dzetsereno le, ake ayatse onukpai ye mo, ni ame- 
hayin amete. Aso noni akeo noni akeeo, amenmc mli eko; si fe 
se mon fedd ni'^ amenu asemsro , ake onia ohatsu. 

Zimmermann, Akra Grammar, p. 187. 



AKRA. TYI. 



281 



Remarks. 

The Standard Alphabet has been already employed by the 
Rev. J. Zimmermann in his Grammatical Sketch of the 
Akra- or Gd-language^ Stuttgart. 1858. We write only dz 
instead of his ds^ and ib instead of his f, which would remind 
rather a dental s than a labial 'W (see above). With regard 
to the tones, he distinguishes only two of them, indicating 
the elevation of the voice by the grave accent (Ji) instead of 
the acute (a) employed in the cognate languages, and leaving 
the other without sign (p. 6). He uses the acute (a) in its 
original meaning as word-accent, as we do. 



TYI (0-TYI, OJI), ^^^Z6'apm dialect. 



§ Q 





k g 


n 


X A 


y 


t d 


n 


s z 


r 


p h 


m 


f V 


10 



Mostly short, sometimes long. 
ai ei oi(oi) 



Specimen. 
Abe baakonna sei ensa. Wo to adur-a^ ebi ka wdno. Abofra 
ente n'enna ni n^agya asem-a^ odi aduan enkiii7ine nim. Tdpo 
ni abanm. Wonim tu-a ^ tu ico dyon. Ohia na ma odeje ye 
akoa. Wohu koto eni-a ^ wose: eye dud. Esonno afoh-d, ivongwa 
no berou so. Atyg abien borro vu. Riis, Grammat. Outline p. 1H. 



Remarks. 
Rev. H. N. Riis, in his Grammatical Outline and Vocabic^ 
lary of the Oji-language , with especial reference to the Akwapim- 

T 



282 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



dialect, Basel. 1854. writes e, p, ii, n, c instead of our e, o 
w, ?i, J. If he says p. 9: "The combination zvy is to be con- 
sidered rather as a simple sound, intermediate between w and y, 
this peculiar sound is perhaps the same, which we have 
written iv in the preceding languages. He distinguishes (p. 7) 
"a third class of vowels , which cannot be said to be long, 
and yet are different from the short vowels. They are sounded 
more fully and sharply than the latter, but without the sound 
being prolonged, as in the case with the long vowels." He 
marks those vowels by the circumflex a, e^ etc. If by this 
description he wishes to designate the ascending tone of the 
cognate languages, we should write it «/, <?', etc. as in those 
languages. 







T E M N E. 








e 
a 


k g 


n 


h 


y 




e 


t d 


n 


s 


r I 










s 




i 













i u 


p h 


m 


/ 


w 


ai 


all oi ui 


ts 




gb 





Specimen. 
Wani reke katroii ka nu, o wo ha tre-lomme kemme kin, hi o 
yUn ka nan o sokkar^ o mo trei fe a tre-gha tr'^anle trofat tramat 
ro 71 ante ro-kant-i, o mo konne treka ten o wo_ sokkar^ lid o sotto 
kg if Ko hi o pon sotto kg, o hotr kg ka e kenkla e yon, o ha 
ma-honne. Luke 15, 4. 5. 



Remarks. 
We give the alphabet and the specimen according to Rev. 
C. F. Schlenker in his Temneh Primer^ Stuttgart, 1854; 



TEMNE. VEI. 



283 



although his transcription seems to be in an imperfect state. 
He writes a^ e^ o , n ov ng ov ngh^ s instead of our e, e, o, 
n^ s. The description of his a (e) "like the English u in but 
or in nm" is doubtful; e (e) has according to him the double 
pronunciation of the German a in Vdter — our e — , and that 
of the English ai in bait — our e] he gives to his o only the 
long sound as in home or old — our o , and to his o only the 
long sound as in law or water — our o; he writes very fre- 
quently h at the end of words, as kah^ looh^ ngangli, oh^ 
moh^ ih^ koh, eli^ yongli in our specimen, only "to distinguish 
words which, though sounded alike, have a different sense", 
a principle which we could not recommend. The quantity of 
the vowels in the specimen is not indicated^ nor is it clear, 
what is meant by his writing lid. 












a 






e 





e 







i 




u 


short and 


long. 


au 


ai ei 


ei 


ou 


ou 





VEI. 

k g 
t d 
f b 



n 


A r 


n 


s z 


m 


f ^ 



ts dz gb 



y 

r I 
w 



Specimen. 
Fatoma Seri a ba Taru Gura a ra wurii difimuro he mu kia 
sama gbea mu tere gben dzerema kea amu moa Duru-karg ke- 
rema dze. Difi biri a ivere ka nkundo gba. Ke dondo. Mfa 
sdu afd ken-gba-tg-bgroro-kdroewa me Gbombai. Amu Gbombai 
monue Doaru Sisi so Dzhondu. Kere Doaru bere Tugba Fa 
misa a dzommu a fake, amu a toa mfa Sdu bgro. A td 
fdkume dfoa Dzondu. Kam biri banda mfa Wonyawere be bgro nu. 

T2 



I 



284 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



Remarks. 

We refer to the Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei language 
by Rev. S. W. Koelle, Church Missionary. London. 1853. 



He writes in this Grammar e, p, b 



n\ r. 



5 ds instead of 



our e^ p, 0, w, /, ts^ dz. He describes the sound of his b as 
between the o of note (our o) and the u of book. Being un- 
certain , whether this description would characterise this vowel 
sufficiently, we shall meanwhile write it o. Mr. Koelle adds 
to his valuable work a most interesting account respecting the 
mode of syllabical writing invented in modern times by the 
Vei people themselves, and we find the vowel g(b) distin- 
guished from and o(o) also in this Vei writing. 





susu. 






a 


k g 


n 


X A 


r 


e 


t d 


n 


s 
s 


y 

r 


u 


p h 
dz 


m 


f 


w 



Remarks. 
Rev. J. L. Wilson, Missionary of the American Board on 
the Gabun, gives the /Sz<5?^- alphabet in the Journal of the 
Amer. Or. Soc. vol. I, No. IV, p. 365 after the Grammar of 
the Rev. Mr. Brunt on (Edinburgh. 1802). We have no doubt 
that his ng, sh^ kh^ dzh correspond with our n, Sj j, dz; but 
we are not sure, whether his rh is a guttural r(r) or our 
letter /. 



SUSU. MANDINGA. WOLOF. 



285 



e e 



ai au 0% 



MANDINGA. 

h g 

t d 

p h 

t8 di 



n 


h 


n 


s 


m 


f 



y 

r I 
w 



specimen. 

Katuho aryena-mansaro molunta ho huntio mem hota somanda 
dzuna, fo asi dolalu sotto ala wainehunkoto. Afaita dolalu fe 
hoppere sai, a ivohc ki ala wainekunkoto. Ahota hungoto wonyama 
wate sahhandzangoto , a dolu dye helorin kensinke marseoto, 

Ey. Matth. 20, 1 — 3. 

Remarks. 
The alphabet and specimen are taken from the Grammar 
of the Mandingo language, with Vocabularies^ by the Rev. R. 
Maxwell M a cbr air. London 1837. p. 70. 





WOLOF. 






§ 


k g 


n 


X \ 


y 


a 


t d 


n 


8 Z 


r I 


e 






8 Z 




e ' " 


p b 


m 


f V 


w 


i If u 




dz n\ 


/ 





a e Q K, 



Specimen. 

Ben bes goloh-ge ne: Mgn-na gyeki tkie lelek bel ngyent-sou^ 
te du-ma-oketu. Log-be n§ ko: Man it mowna gyeki tkie lelek 



286 



AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 



hel ngyent-sou te du-ma-jeniku. Nyu di gyeki thie lelek hel dig 
u bekyek. Goloh hog-nd oketu, te am-id hen mpeje-mtc mu-def, 
Mune log: Be-mu-demon tkie jare-be ^ nyu-dyam me halle Ji. 



Remarks. 

In the Recherches sur la langue Ouolofe^ par M. le baron 
Roger, Paris, 1829, our letters ^, ^, e^ e^ e, o, u, u, w, j[, s, 
i, dz^ ny are rendered by e, e, h^ e^ e, 6w, w, ok,^ n, kh or hr 
or rh, chjj, dj, gn. 



FUL (FULAH). 



a 












A] 


rabic sounds 


^ Q 

e 

i u 


k g 
t d 


n 

n 


h 

s 
s 


z 
z 


y 

r 


I 


I 

ids 


short and long. 


p h 


m 


f 


- 


w 






a 6 

ai cm ei oi ou ui 


t8 dz 


ny 













Specimen. 

Lddi e dvi nyaldi he ydldhii fl dzaka e Augustus Kaisara no 
he winda dendangal nihuhe. Ko ndun woni tdlkuru drwandtc o 
dzoni dun to Kirenus lamdo Scimi. Wali denddngalmahe kayo 
winde kola goto emdhe hato sdremako. Yahi Yusufu kade iude 
Dzalila hato sdremako Ndzarata to ledi Yahttdiankohe hato 
scire Dclwudct nclen notirtende Baituldhami ko don luoni sdre Dd- 
wuda e gahilamum ; kayo he windane ivondude e Marydma gen- 
dirdomako ko don oredi, Ev. Luc. 2, 1 — 5. 



FUL. KANURI. 



287 



Remarks. 

The Rev. C. L. Rei chard t, Church Miss., in his Primer 
in the Fulah language^ and in his Three original Fulah Pieces, 
Berlin , 1859 , has already used the Standard alphabet. There 
are many Arabic words in the Ffil^ which ought to be ren- 
dered according to our Arabic transcription. We should also 
adopt the letter / instead of dz^ if this sound occurred only 
in Arabic words. The specimen is taken from Reichardt's 
Primer p. 23. 



KANURI (BORNU). 





§ ^ 




a 




e Q 




e 


i 


u 


short and long. 


a 




ai 


axi ei oi oic ui 



k g 


h 


h - 


t d 


n 


s - 

s z 


p b 


m 


f - 



w 



ts dz ts (dz) 



Specimen. 

Tcitoa sandi helm ''di gandntsdn sobdgdta. Sdhdgatdnyd^ tilo, 
ahdntse gdlifu^ tilo, ahdntse tdlaga. Sandi ndi nemsobdntsa tsadin, 
dugo, sandi ivurdgeda. Wurdgeddnyd, nd kdmnbe tsdtl. Ke~ 
tenyd, tdta gdlifube letse, pero kuydngd ydsge nigd tsede, gotsi; 
kuric icolte, kdmu kura tilo nigd tsede, 'per 6a kdm ydsguro 
fokisegl. Koelle, Afr. native literature, p. 7. 



Remarks. 

We refer respecting the alphabet and specimen to the most 
valuable works of the Rev. S. W, Koelle, Church Missionary; 



288 



AI^RICAN LANGUAGES. KONGARA. NUBA. 



Grammar af the Bornu or Kdnurl language and African native 
Literature^ both publ. London, 1854, in which the Standard 
Alphabet is already used. 



KONGARA (DAR-FUR). 



a a 


k g 


n 


(h) 




e e 


- 9 


n 


s 


y 


i I ti u 


t d 


n 


s 


r I 


ai au 


p b 
NUBA 


m 


f 


w 


a a 


k g 


n 


h 




e e 


R (1 


n 


s 


y 


I I u u 


t d 


n 


s 


r I 


ai au 


p b 


m 


f 


w 



Specimen. 

Inl urrag Yesu Mesih^ norin todin, ingllnilin. Nebi Isahian 
fayisin nagitta: Adl, ai f-ider melaik angd urrag innci^ daivig 
indoro haddereyd. Hissi we tdJcin faleld: Hadderan norin da- 
wigd, sallahan sikhe tamiigd. Yuhannd faleld gatisoga menon^ 
dd-derson getdsilton tubogana yd^ semhl gafritakkana yd, 

Ey. Marc. 3, X — 5. 



Remarks. 

The alphabets of the . Kohgara and Nuba languages are 
picked up by the Author himself from the natives, the Nuba 
specimen from his Gospel according to St. Mark translated into 
the Nubian language. .Berlin. 1860. 



AMERICAN LANGUAGES. GREENLANDIC. 



289 



AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 

INDIAN LANGUAGES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



e 










a 






k 


9 


e 






ts 


dz 


i 


u 




t 


d 


a e I 


Li, 


§ 






ai au 






p 


b 



n 


h 

X 


r 


nij 


s 


^ 


n 


s 


z 




^ 


d 


m 


f 


V 



y ^y 

r I 

IV 



Remarks. 
Few of the American languages have been carefully ana- 
lysed with respect to their sound-system, and we are not able 
to trace rightly the alphabets of the Kri^ Odzihioa, Mikmak, and 
others, after the imperfect descriptions and transcriptions which 
lie before ns. We think it therefore advisable to refer to the 
valuable and well known Essay on a uniform orthography for 
the Indian languages of North America by John Pickering, 
who describes with acuteness the above given sounds. His 
transcription differs from ours in the following letters : e, a, e, 
h 0, it, e; n, j, /, s, z, ^, d, which he writes: o, a, e, /, p, y, p; 
n, kh, gh, sh, zh, th, dh. 



GREENLANDIC. 



a a 

e 

i I u, u 



U - 

k g 

t - 

P - 



ii 


h 

X y 


, n 


X - 




s z 


j n 


s z 


m 


f « 



290 



AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 



Specimen. 

ISJdlagaU miane^allugo , taza ilizimanej^mut autlajniutigsaU . 
Ps. 11 J, 10. — Tamazza sukxdautigsd ^ kimji-d! Kutzmnejuw^ 
zdjtup pejhtzzutd tazza^ pkimdjtugsa^ ndlagkawmd kunimut. 
Inunit ayagtojumdjpdtit. Dan. 4, 21. 22. — IzumaMajpoJc , Ua- 
tanhutaiza malugizzagdne , annautigiumdj(itik ^ Gutip annaukku- 
manmatik. Acts, 7, 25. 



Ke marks. 

S. Kleins chmidt in his Grammatik der Gronlandischen 
Sprache , Berlin, 1851. supplies us with a very learned and 
accurate description of the Greenlandic sounds, although we 
must deviate in many points from his transcription of the con- 
sonants. Our letters: k ^ n, x, y, k^ n, j, s, z, z are the 
same as his: A^, rng^ r, r, k, ng, g, ss, s$, s. He calls the first 
class gutturals, the second palatals, but be describes both classes 
as uttered deeper in the throat than the same classes in other 
languages. The second class comes very near to the common 
gutturals, whilst the first might be compared, as in the Ge^ez 
and AmJiaric, to a peculiar developement of the Semitic q- class. 
We distinguish those deep gutturals by adding over them, as 
in the just mentioned languages, the guttural point, and by 
doubling it over n. It is the same misconception which we have 
met already several times, that he takes the rough friction of 
r, ^, and even ii as a regular vibration, representing it by 
the basis r. The original explosive media is, according to this 
author, only preserved in the second class as ^, whilst in 
the other classes it is either softened, between vowels, into 
the respective soft fricative f/, f, 0, v) or, after consonants, 
changed even into the hard fricative f j, s, 5, f). In the latter 
case he distinguishes the soft and the hard fricative only in 
the first class (r and r) and in the last ("y and f), but he does 
not distinguish 8S — I from ss = J, nor s — 8 from s = z. It 



MASSATSUSET. 



291 



is, however, only consistent, to show fully in our transcription 
the regular developement of this interesting system of conso- 
nants. It seems, on the other hand, that we might easier dis- 
pense with the compound letter cll^ which this author uses for 
/ if it follows an other consonant. As to the difiPerent accents, 
which Mr. Kleinschmidt employs , they seem to us not ne- 
cessary, if we double, after every sharp accented vowel, the 
following consonant. 



MASSATSUSET. 



a 


I ^. 


n 


X h 


- 


e 


ts dz 


- 


s 


y 


i u 


t d 


n 


s z 


Cr)(l) 


short and long. 


p b 


m 


f « 


w 



a 



Specimen. 

Noosun kesukwut qwuttianatamunats koowesuonk, peyaumoouts 
kukketassootamoonk kuttenantamoonk ne ennats ohkeit neane ke- 
sukwut. Numeetsuongas asekesukokis assamainnean yeuyeu kesukok. 
Kah ahkwontamaiinnean nummatseseongas neane matsenehikivegeeg 
nutahkwontamauounonog. Matth. 6, 9— ii. 

Remarks. 
The alphabet is taken from John Eliot: A Grammar of 
the Massachusetts Indian language, ed. by P. S. du Ponceau. 
Boston ; 1822, and the Specimen from Josiah Cotton: Vo- 
cabulary of the Mass. Ind. langu. Cambridge, 1829. p. 104. 
There remain still several doubts about the vowels. The 
letters r and I are used in cognate dialects instead of Massa- 
tsusett n. We add j( according to a remark of John Pickering, 
see Cotton p. 6. 



292 



AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 



a 
e 



I R K W I S. 

k - 

t - 



a e 



Remarks. 
Du Ponceau, in his Memoir e sur le systeme grammatical 
des langues de tjuelqties nations Indiennes de VAmerique du nord. 
Paris, 1838. p. 103. pretends expressly, that the Irokwois use 
only the poor alphabet exhibited above. According to Zeis- 
berger (du Ponceau, p. 259) they have also the letters {g), 
^; ^^^Xy ^y -^5 9- 



M U S K K I. 



a 

e 



ai an %u m 



k 


n 


h 


ts 


- 


s 


t 


n 


s 


p 


m 


f 



y ^i 
I 



w 



Specimen. 

Tsihofe isti yeme ikene ohfulot imilhlusit ivutsin atotetis; mutse 
istaimet ohokesomi 7iomgt istimilhlaiki kos; hisakite imi yukse sikot 
i?i hitskekehlis. John 3, 16. 

Remarks. 
See A short Sennon: also Hymns, in the Muskokee or Greek 
language by Rev. John Fleming, Miss, of the Amer. B. of 
Comm. f. F. Miss. Boston, 1835. Cf. Winslett, Muskokee 
Hymns, Park Hill, 1851. (Presbyter. Miss.) 



IROKWOIS. MUSKOKI. TSAHTA. TSALAGI. 



293 



TSAHTA (OHOKTAW). 





f 


h 


- 


n 


h 






a 


ts 


- 


_ 


s 


y 


1 


e 
i u 
a I a e 
ai au 


t 
P 


b 


n 
m 


s 

f 


I 
lb 



Specimen. 

Pihi eha is bmili ma. Tsi hohtsifo het holitopaske. Is a'pe- 
hlitsika yet elaske. Nana is aiahni ka yakni pakna yd a yohmi 
ket eha yakni a yohmi mak o tsiyuhmaske. Mimak nitak ilhpak 
pim ai elhpesa hoka is pi ipetaske. Matth. 6, 9 — ii. 

Remarks. 

See The Choctaw Spelling book, 5*^ ed. Boston, 1849. p. 36. 
and cf. The Choctaw Instructor. UticR; 1831. 



TSALAGI (GHIROKI). 

e - gw - h 

a k g ' 

e t d n 

i u - ds - 

tl dl 
- - m 

hn nah 



w 



Iv 


ge 


y gi 


A 


go 


J gu 


E ge 


^ 


ye 


^ yi 


h 


yo 


GT yu 


B .Vp^ 


% 


te 


a u 


- 


- 


- - 


- - 


^ 


de 


Ji di 


A 


do 


S du 


(r> cZe 


Jl 


ne 


fi ni 


Z 


no 


^ ««/ 


(P 7l^g 


4 


se 


b .92 


* 


so 


'^ 51/ 


R se 


cT 


le 


P li 


G 


lo 


M lu 


^ ^o^' 


r 


dse 


Ft dsi 


K 


dso 


Cf J5?/ 


occ % 



294 AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 

jy a 1^ e T i <5o Ow i, e 

[E ^?^« i^ .^/<^^ ^ ^?r« oV^ <:/i/?o Cc) gum % gwe 

^ ha ? he JS hi . 'h ho F hic ^ he 
® ka 

^ ga 

W ^« 

I) c?a 

O na 

15 sa 

W /a 

G" dsa 

<ft dla L ^/^ G J/{ <^ (i/o ^ J^w P die 
c/¥ ??^a GI 9?ie H mi ^ mo ^ mu 

\1 -fc- /ma G ^iaA oi) s 

^»y Specimen. 

Ogidoda galeladi hehi^ galegwodiyu gesesdi dedsadoei. Dsa 

geioiyuhi gese icigananugoi. Ani elohi icidsigalisda hadanetesgei, 

7iasgiya galeladi dsinigalisdiha. Nidadodagwise ogalisdayedi sgiesi 

; *" gohi iga. Digesgiesigwono desgidugei, nasgiya dsidigayodsineho 

;.. dsodsidugi. Ale dlesdi iidagoliyediyi widisgiyatinestanegi sgiyu- 

dalesgesdigivosgini uyo gesei. Dsadseligayeno dsagewiyuMgesei^ 

I^V^ dsalmigidi ale gesei ^ edsalegwodiyio ale gese nigohilei. Amen. 

^^ *JU >^^'A i, The Lord's prayer. 



Remarks. 

The Ghirohi ov , as they pronounce themselves, Tsalagi are | 
known hj the remarkable fact, that they alone of the Indian 



TSALAGI (CHIROKI). 295 

tribes use in writing and printing vernacular characters, in- 
vented about 1823 by a Chiroki man called Segiooya or with 
his English name George Guest. The history of this extra- 
ordinary invention, will be found, after an authentic relation 
in a Chiroki newspaper, in the Notes to the treatise of John 
Pickering on the Indian languages of America, translated into 
German by the learned Mrs. Th. Robinson (Talvj). It is in- 
teresting to observe, that the inventor, who could not read 
nor speak any other language except his own , did not proceed 
to the separation of vowels and consonants, but set up a syl- 
labarium of 85 characters, uniting 15 consonantal sounds with 
six different vowels and giving besides a pecuHar sign to every 
pure vowel. He omitted those combinations, which he did not 
actually meet in his language, and he added a character for 
the syllable nah (= wa?), probably because this syllable con- 
stitutes the only monosyllable Chiroki word (except some in- 
terjections), a second one for the syllable Ima, perhaps because 
the aspirated n seems to be the only aspirated consonant which 
occurs in the beginning of words, and a third for the simple 
vowelless s, which precedes several other consonants, for ex. 
S'^, sd^ sk^ sg^ sgw. The sixth vowel (ej has been described as 
a nasalized English ^^ of but. It seems not impossible that it 
may resemble the hard i of the Chinese and the Tatarian lan- 
guages, which would easily be decided by a Russian linguist. 
We should propose in this case to render it likewise by ?* 
instead of e. As to the consonants, we are of the opinion, 
that the Tsalagi language has no true sonant Mediae, but that 
oui' second row contains the^'real dry Tenues^ which we ought 
to write kw^ k, t^ ts, tl, and the first row the aspirates A:', f, t'l. 
We conform however to the already received orthography, 
whose deviation from the true pronunciation is all the less im- 
portant, because no third row has been developped in the Tsa- 
lagi system. J. D. W of ford in his American Sunday School 
Spelling book, traiislated into the Cherokee language.^ New York, 



296 AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 

1824. represents all the rows of vowel combinations, also those 
with ^, t^ tl, m^ as complete, and adds even several conso- 
nantal sounds which by Segwoya were not distinguished ; for he 
gives besides Z, tl and dl a second Z, rendered by 7, which he 
compares with the Welsh II, our ?, and which occurs also in 
the combinations tl> and dl. Moreover, he uses an aspiration 
expressed by ^ before vowels and almost all the consonants 
{^q, ^giv, 'k, =g, >ij, Us, 't, c/, m, 's, ('l)) — except only the 
labials m and w — and distinguishes 'y from hy. In a single 
sheet in 4° , containing the Cherokee Alphabet, we find the 
remark, that "in some words g, Z, n, d, to and y are aspirated, 
as if preceded by 7i." We render in our specimen this aspiration 
provisionally by '. With regard to the vowels, he writes v 
for the English it of thus, and v for the same vowel nasa- 
lized. He employs also occasionally two accents placed over 
the vowels, «, e, i, (oj, u and a, e, (i), o, w, without, however, 
any explication. He also gives, besides the consonantal com- 
binations with s, several others in his texts, as ^7, hy , wh, 
nt, nd, ntl, nn, and we are at a loss to know, how such 
vowelless consonants might be expressed in the Chiroki writing. 
It seems , that Segwoya did not provide at all for those cases, 
but that at present the diacritical sign . — is prefixed before 
such consonants which have lost their vowel-sound. This is 
at least the case in the Cherokee Hymns , compiled from several 
authors, 8^^ ed. Park Hill, Mission Press, 1848, as we see 
from a note added to p. 2 of those Hymns , as well as in The 
Gospel ace. to Matthew , translated into the Cherokee language. 
5*^* ed. Park Hill 1850, from which we have taken the Spe- 
cimen. Chiroki scholars will in these respects complete our 
transcription. 



a 

e 
i u 

d e t u 



DAKOTA. 

DAKOTA. 



k g k 

ts - ts 

t d t 

p b p 



297 



- 


h 


- 


- 


X 


r 


- 


s 


z 


n 


s 


z 


m 


- 


- 



y 
Q) 

W 



Specimen. 

Witsasta ivd tsthitku nopa: ukd hakakta ki he atkuku ki 
hetsiya: Ate^ woyuJia mitdwa kte tsl he mitsuwo^ eya. V kd w6- 
yuha kl yudki'pam ivitsdkic. Ukd iyohakam dpetu tonana^ tsthitku 
hakakta kd he owdsl witaya tpahi^ ka itehdyd makotse wd ekta 
itsimani ya; ka hen sijd ojdydpi ki o, tdku yuM tsi owdsi 
hdutdkunisni. Ev. Luc. 15, 11 — 13. 

Remarks. 

The distinction of long and short vowels is not clearly fixed. 
The sound of ^ in sm^ p'a^ boPo^ kapn^ kas'i^ etc. is that of 
the Arabic hamza. Of the sounds, which we write k , ts, t, p, 
the Rev. S. R. Riggs, Missionary of the American Board, 
says in his Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota lan- 
guage, Washington, 1852, that they are pronounced "with a 
strong pressure of the organs, followed by a sudden ex- 
pulsion of the breath." Others call this pressure a sort of 
aspiration. We believe that the pronunciation of these sounds 
is the same as that of the corresponding Khetsua sounds, and 
write them accordingly (see below). The assibilated palatals 
ts and ts seem to be mostly derived from gutturals. The 
letter I occurs regularly only in the Titowd dialect, replacing 
d or n of the other dialects. Mr. Riggs uses ay, erj, etc., 
c, ky 6, t, J), hy g, s, z instead of our a, e, etc., ts , k, ts^ 



U 



298 



AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 



e 

o 

a a 

e e 

I i w 

d e % u 



T M I. 



h g 

ts - 

t d 

p h 





h 


n 


X 


ny 


- 


n 


s z 


m 


f - 



Remarks. 

See Grammatica delta lingua Otomi dal conte V. Piccolo- 
mini. Roma. 1841. 



K H E T S U A (QQUICHUA , PERUVIAN). 



a 


h 


Ml k 


- 


h h 


- 


e 


ts 


tsh - 


ng 


/ - 


ii/ 


i u 


t 


th t 


n 


s s 


(I) 




V 


ph p 


m 


- - 


- 



Specimen. 

Tsaipatsapi Jesus yatsatsiskankunamanmi nyirkan: unantsa- 
kuna intipi, khilyapipas koilyurkunapi'pas kankam; runakunari 
kaipatsapi 7namakotsap tsaunyiinyinpa pokhtsikenkunap kum- 
nyiinyinpas mantsainyinhuan lyakhirayankam. Runakuna tukui 
tekkimuiup hdhuaman hamukunap mantsainyinhuan suiainyin- 
huanpas tsakhikupiinku. Tsekapunim hanak phatsakunap tekkin- 
kuna kuiukunka. Tsaipaisapii'i hatum atipainyinhuan ^ apu- 
kainyinhuanpas phuhuiupi hamukhta virgenpa huahuanta ri- 
kunkam. Ev. Luc. 21, 25—27. 



OTOMI. KHETSUA. KIRIRI. 



299 



Remarks. 

The following letters: (; k, kh, k, h; ts, tsh, ny , i, ly; th, 
t, s, s; ph, p, of onr transcription are rendered by Gonpalez 
Holguin in his Vocahidario de la lengua Qquichua^ Reyes, 
1608, and by Torres Rubio in his Arte y Vocahulario de la 
lengua Quichua^ Lima, 1754, y; c (before a, o, w, ^) or qu 
(before e, i), k (a, o, u, () or qqu {e, i)^ cc or kc, h; ch, chh, 
n, s, II; th or tt, tt^ g (a, o, ii) or c (^, {) or z (before con- 
sonants) ^ fs; p or pp ^ pp; by J. von T s c h u d i , Die Kechua- 
Sprache^ Wien, 1853: y^ c or k^ k or k\ c or ^% Ji ; ch, ch, 
n, s', ii; ^ t , s^ s\ V-) P- The letters k, t, p, A, s are pro- 
nounced with a peculiar contraction of the throat, which we 
can only compare with the guttural emphasis of the Semitic 
linguals, and which we render accordingly by the same line 
underneath. The letter, which we write s seems to be more 
a sharp aspirated 6-, than a full s, which latter, however, is 
substituted in some districts. We are not sure as to the 
exact pronunciation of the letter written y by former gram- 
marians and rendered by us (; it seems to be always com- 
bined with other vowels. 







KIRIRI. 


a 

e e 




k g 
ts dz 


e Q 




t d 


i i 
a e etc. 


u 


p b 



ny 

n 

m 



y k 



U2 



300 AMERICAN LANGUAGES. OTOML 

Remarks. 

P. Mamiani in his Kiriri- Grammar ^ translated from the 
Portugese into German by H. C. von der G ab el entz (Leipzig. 
1852), writes ce, e, a, o, y, tg^ hn, ch, j, M, instead of our 
e, <?, 0, pj i, ts, 7iy ^ s, z. ly. The vowel y = i^ is called by 
the Brasilian Grammarians the 'Hhick i" and is said to be 
pronounced with a guttural sound. We have rendered it by 
the Tataric and Chinese /, to which it seems to approach, 
as in the preceding languages. 



The General Table of Languages, which we exhibit hereafter, is added 
for the convenience of the reader. It rests entirely upon the responsibility 
of the author of the pamphlet and claims no other authority; the affiliation 
and interdependence of the dialects of mankind being too wide a question 
to be allowed to interfere with the practical object, which, especially in its 
Missionary bearing, the Standard Alphabet has in view. It will hardly be 
necessary to state expressly, that the names, Japhetic, Semitic, and Hamitic, 
do not imply the independent origin of those languages, which are not 
classified under them, but which cannot yet be identified with these three 
branches. We use them merely as conventional and convenient terms, fol- 
lowing in this respect, and carrying out, the general linguistic use, which 
has long existed with regard to the Semitic languages. As to the details 
of our survey, we pretend by no means to completeness or perfection in 
all parts; we have used, however, the best authorities and examined the 
latest researches on the diiferent groups of languages, as far as we had 
access to them. 



) 



301 



GENEEAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



The langungcs reduced to the Standard Alphabet are marked by an asterisk. 



LITEEAEY LANGUAGES. 
A. GENDER LANGUAGES. 
I. Japhetic (Indogennanic) B. *Pasto or Afyan. 



languages. 

A. Sans critic (Arian). 

I. Old Indian languages. 

1 . Vedic. 

2. * Sanskrit. 

3. ""Pdk. 

4. *Old Prakrit. 

IL New Indian lan- 
guages. 

a. General dialects. 

1. * Hindi. 

2. * Hindustani, 

b. Local dialects. 

1. *SindM. 

2. *GuJardtt. 

3. Marathi. 

4. Kasmiri. 

5. *Panjdbi or Sikh. 

6. *]Slipdll. 

7. * Bang all. 

8. Assam. 

9. * Uriya. 



C. Eranian. 

I. *01d Baktrian (Zend). 

II. Persian. 

1. * Old Persian {Gu^ 

neiform). 

2. PeJilem. 

a. Huzvares{Pehlevi). 
h. Pdrsi {Pazend). 

3. *New Persian. 
IIL ^Armenian. 

IV. *Kurdo-Luric orLeki. 

1. Kurd. 

a. Kurmdnji. 
h. Zazd. 

2. Beluci. 
V. *Ossetian. 

D. Lituanian (Lettic). 

1. Old Prussian. 

2. * Lituanian, 

a. High Lituanian. 
h. Low Lituania7i or 
Zemaitis. 

3. Lettic. 



302 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



E. 


Slavonic. 


b. Romance languages. 




I. South-eastern branch 


a. Italian. \ 




(Kyrillian letters). 


b. Spanish. \ 




1. Sloveno-Bulg avian. 


c. Portugese. 




a, *Old Slovenian 


d. Provencial. 




(Church Slavonic) . 


e. French. \ 




b. New Slovenian 


f. Grison {Rheto-Ro- 




(Windic). 


mance). 




c. Bulgarian. 


g." Rumanian {Wal- 




2. "Serbian (Illiric), 


lachian). 




Kroatic (Khorvatic). 


a . Northern or Dako- \ 




3. * Russian. 


Rumanian. 




a. Great-Russian. 


/?. Southern or Ma- 




b. Small-Russian. 


cedo-Rumanian. 
4. Etruscan. 




II. Western branch (Ro- 






man letters). 


H. Germanic. 




1 .*Cheskian{Bohemian)., 


1. Gothic. 




Slovakian. 


2. High -German: Old, 




2. "Polish, Polabic. 


Middle, New. 




3. *Sorbian (Wendic, 


' i 
3. Low - German : Old- 




Lusatian). 


Saxon, Middle-Low-, 




a. Eigh-Lmatian. 


New-Low- German. 




b. Low-Lusatian. 


4. Netherlandic : Middle- 
Netherlandic , Dutch. 


F. 


Greek. 


5. Frisic. 




1. Old Greek. 


6. Anglo-Saxon. 




2. New Greek. 


7. English. 

8. Scandinavian. 


G 


Italic. 


a. Icelandic. 




1. Umbrian. 


a. *Old Icelandic. 




2. Oskan. 


b. New Icelandic. 




3. Latin. 


b. Swedish. 




a. Old Roman. 


c. Danish, Norwegian. 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



303 



J. Celtic. 

1. Welsh (Breton). 

a. *Kimri (Cymric). 

b. Cornish. 

c. Armorican (Bas 

Breton). 

2. Gaelic. 

a. Scotch (Gaelic). 

b. Irish (E^'s). 

c. Manks. 

11. Semitic languages. 

A. Northern Semitic 
languages. 

1. ""Hebrew. 

2. Kanaanitic , Phoeni- 

cian^ Punic. 

3. Aramean. 

a. ^Syrian. 

b. Chaldee. 

c. Samaritan.^ Pal- 

my 7'ic. 

d. Mandean or Sa- 

bean. 



B. Southern Semitic 
languages. 

1. * Arabic. 

2. Sinaitic. 



3. Himyaritic, Ehkili. 

4. Abyssinian (Ethio- 

pian). 

a. * Old Abyssinian 

(Ge,'ez). 

b. Tic/re. 

€. *Amharic. 

III. Hamitic languages. 

A. Egyptian. 

1. *Old Egyptian (^Hie- 

roglyphic). 

2. "Coptic. 

B. Ethiopian. 

1. *Beja (Bisdri). 

2. Dankdli. 

3. Harrar. 
4:. Somali. 

5. *Orma (Galla). 

C. Libyan. 

1. *Ta-Mdseq (Mdsiy, 

Tuaric). 

2. *Hausa. 

D. Hottentot. 

1. Hottentot. 

a. *Nama (Namaqua), 

b. Kora. 

2. Bushman. 



B. NO -GENDER LANGUAGES. 



I. Asiatic languages. 

A. Tataric (Ural-Altaic, 
Tataro - Finnic , Scy- 
thian, Turanian). 



I. Tungusian. 
L "Manju. 

2. Lamutic. 

3. Capogiric, 



304 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



4. Orotongian, 
etc. 

II. Mongolian. 

1 . *Sharra - Mongolian 

(eastern Mong.), 

2. Kalmuk {western 
Mongolian). 

3. *Buryetic {northern 

Mongolian), 

III. Turkish. 

1. *Yakutic. 

2. * Osmanlian { Tur- 

kish). 

3. Nogairic^ Kumiik. 

4. Jakataic. 

a. TJiguric. 

b. Usbek. 

c. *Turkmenian. 

5. Kirgisian. 

a. Eastern Kirgisian 

(Kirgiz). 
h. Western Kirgisian 
(Kazak). 

6. Cuwasic. 

7. Barahinzic, Teleutic^ 

Sayanic. 

IV. *Samoyedic. 

1. Yurak-Samoyedic. 

2. Tawgi-Samoyedic. 

3. Ostyak-Samoyedic. 

4. Yenissei'Samoyedic. 

5. Kamassic. 

V. Finnic (Cbudic, Uralic). 



1 . Ugric* 

a. Ostyak. 

b. Wogtdic. 

c. ^Madyaric {Magya- 

ric^ Hungarian). 

2. Permian, 

a. Siryenian {Per- 
rnian). 

b. Wotyak. 

3. Wolgaic (Chudic). 

a. Ceremissian. 

b. *Mordvinian. 
Of. Erse. 

/?. Moksa. 

4. Western Finnic. 
a. Li 



b. Finlandic. 
a. Yemian. 

1. Western Fin- 
landic. 

2. Wepsic. 

3. Wotic. 

4. Esthonian, 

5. ^Livonian. 
/?. Karelian. 

VJ. Dravidian languages. 

1. * Tamil {Tamulian). 

2. *Malaydlam. 

3. *Tulu. 

4. *Karndtaka {Kana- 

rese). 

5. *Telugu {Telinga). 

6. Gond. 

7. Twrfa. ' 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES, 



305 



8. Kota. 

9. Ku (Kund). 

B. Monosyllabic lan- 

guages. 

I. Chinese. 

1. *Kwan-hwa or Man- 

darinic. 
a. Dial, of Peking, 
h. Dial, of Nanking. 

2. Fn-kyan. 

a. Dial, of Can-ceu. 
h. *Hok-lo. 

3. Kwan-tun {Canton). 

a. Pun-ti {Pen). 

b. *Hak-ka. 

c. Sin-hwai. 

II. Annara. 

III. *Thai (Siamese). 

IV. ^Kamboja. 

V. *Mranma (Burmese). 

C. Isolated languages. 

1. *Yukagiric. 

2. *Caucau {Chukchik)^ 

Koryak. 

3. Kamchatka. 

4. * Japanese. 

5. Korean. 

6. *Tibetan. 

7. Caucasian languages. 
a. Georgian ( Grusi- 

nian)., Lazian and 
Mingrelian , Gu- 
rian, Suanian. 



h. Lesgian, Aware. 

c. ^Tus, Kistian^Mizje- 

gian). 

d. Cerkessian, Abha- 
sian. 

8. Lycian. 
In Europe: 

9. * Albanian. 
1 0. Basque. 

11. Polynesian or Malayan 
(Oceanic) languages. 

A. Western Branch. 

1. Sumatra and Malakka. 

a. ""Malay. 

b. *Batak. 

c. Acin, Rejan,^ Lam- 

pun, Mantaivei', 
(Poggi)^ Nian, 
Maruwin, 

2. * Javanese. 

a. Kawi or Old Ja- 

vanese. 

b. New Javanese : 
Bhasa-krama, Nyo- 
ko .) Madliya. 

3. Bo^^neo. 

a. *Dayak.) etc. 

4. Sumbava, Timor. 

5. Celebes. 

a, *Makassar {Mang- 

kassara). 

b. *Bugis (Wugi). 

6. Moluccas Islands. 



306 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



7. Philippine Islands : 


5. *Hervey Islands: Ra- 


Tagala. 


ro-Tonga. 


8. Formosa (Taitvan), 


6. "Gambier^s Islands. 


9. Marianne Islands. 


7. ^Society Islands: Ta- 


10. Caroline Islands. 


hiti. 


B. Eastern Branch. 

1. *New Zealand. 

2. Frie7idly Islands. 

3. Navigator^s (^Samoa) 

Islands. 


8. Paumotu Islands. 

9. * Marquesas Islands: 

Nukahitva. 
10. * Sandwich Islands : 
Ilawaiyi. 


4. Union Islands: Fa- 


C. Madagaskar: Mala- 


kaafo. 


gasse. 


ILLITERATE LANGUAGES. 


1. Australian or Papuan 


5. Solomon Islands: 


languages ( Negrito, 


Bauro, Guadalka- 


Nelanesian). 


nar. 
6. iV<?^<J Hebrides: 


A. Australian. 


""Annatom^ Tana. 


1. Southicest. languages. 


7. iV^t^; Caledonia. 


2. Parnkalla. 


8. Loyalty Islands : 


3. "Adelaide. 


""Mare., Nengore, Do- 


4. Murray river. 


ka., Lifu. 


5. Encoimter hay. 


9. *F^W (Fiji) Islands, 


6. Victoria. 




7. Tasmania Island. 


IV. African languages. 


8. Eastern languages. 

9. Northern languages. 


A. Original or South 
African languages. 


B. Melanesian (Papuan). 


1. Zanzibar. 


1. New Guinea. 


a. *Sudheli {Ki-Sua- 


2. New Ireland. 


heli). 


3. New Britannia. 


b. Nika. 


4. Louisiade. 


c. Kamba. 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



307 



d. Pohomo. 

e. Hinzuan. 

2. Mosamhique. 
a, ""Makua. 
h, Tette, 

c. Bena. 

3. Tegeza. 

4. *Tsudna (^Se-chuana). 
a. Suto (Ba-Suto). 

h. Rolon. 
c. Hlapi. 

5. Kafir. 

a. *Zulu. 

h. iiOsa {Ma- II so). 

6. Bimda. 

a. ^Herero^ 

h. Ngola {Angola). 

c. Benguela. 

d. Londa. 

7. Kongo, 
a. Kongo, 
h. Kokongo. 
c. Mpongice. 

8. Biqfra gulf. 

a. Kele {Di-kele). 
h. Benga. 

c. Dualla. 

d. Isubu. 

e. ^Fernando Po. 

9. Niger-Delta, 
a. Effik. 

h, ""Ibo. 

c. *Y6ruba. 

d. Nupe. 



10. Slave coast. 

a. Ewe (Ife'). 

b. Maji. 

c. Ddhume. 

d. . Weta. 

e. Anfue. 

f. Anlo {Aongla). 

11. Gold coast. 

a. Fanti. 

b. Asanti. 

c. *Akra or Gd. 

d. * Tyi ( Otji) or 

Akwapim. 

12. Windward coast. 

a. Grebo. 

b. Kruh. 

c. Basa. 

13. Sierra Leone. 

a. Bullom. 

b. Serbro. 

c. *Timne. 

B. Isolated languages 
in Middle Africa. 

1. Gor. 

a. *Wolof. 

b. *Fida. 

2. Mande. 

a. *Vei. 

b. *Susu. 

c. *Mandinga. 

3. Tebu {Teda), 

4. ^Bornu: Kdnuri. 

5. *Dar Fur: Kongdra, 



308 



GENERAL TABLE OF LANGUAGES. 



6. ""Nuba. . 

7. Umdle (Tumale). 

IV. American languages. 

A. North - American 
languages. 

1. Karalian. 

a. *Greenlandic. 

h. Eskimo {Labrador), 

c. Eskimo - ChukcJiic, 

2. Kohl 

3. AtJiapaskan, 

4. Delaicare {Lena'pe^ 

Algonki7i). 

a. Kri.. 

b. Ottawa, 

c. Chippeway {Ojib- 

way). 

d. Pottawatomi, 

e. Mikmak, 

f. Abenakwi. 

g. *Massatsuset. 
h. Mohegan. 

I. Delaware, 
k. oawani. 

5. *Irokwois. 

6. Florida, 

a. *Muskogi or Krik. 

b. *Tsahta{Chocktaw),' 

c. * Tsiroki {Ghirokese). 

7. Sioux (Nadoivessi). 

a. *Dak6ta. 

b. Kansa, 
€, Iowa, 



8. PanL 

9. Arrapahu. 

10. Komantse (Paduka). 

11. Kalifornian. 

B. Middle - American 

languages. 

1. Astek or Mexican. 

2. Tolteka. 

3. Miksteka, 

4. Zapoteka. 

5. Taraska, 

6. Apatse, 

7. ""Otomi. 

8. Maya, Pokontsi. 

9. Moskito. 

C. South - American 

languages. 

1. Moska (Chibcha), 

2. Guarani (Carib). 

3. Tupi (Brasilian), 

4. Botokudian (Enge- 

rekmung^ Aimbore). 

5. *Kiriri. 

6. *Khetsua (KecJiua^ 

Peruvian). 

7. Aimara. 

8. Guaikur. 

9. Araukana (Moluche). 

10. Pueltse (Pampa). 

11. Tehuel (Patagonian), 



309 



POSTSCEIPT. 

The publication of these sheets has been delayed longer than 
we expected, on account of the -increased number of alphabets, 
from all classes of languages , which had to be reduced to our 
standard. We hope that this delay will only have been in the 
interest of the present work, as we have already explained 
above (p. 19), why we considered it necessary to devote parti- 
cular care to this Second Part of our pamphlet. We met with 
great difficulties especially among those languages, which pos- 
sess from ancient times a native alphabet and a national litera- 
ture; and yet these are just the most important, as well for 
Missionaries as for Linguists. 

We have now still to complete the list of publications given 
above (p. 2 sqq.), in which the Standard Alphabet has been 
adopted. As far as we are acquainted with them, they are 
the following: 

J o h. A n d r. Sjogren's Livische Grammatik nehst Spracli- 
probeuj im Avftrage der Kaiserliclien Akademie der Wissen- 
scltaften hearheitet von F e r d. J o h. W i e d e m a n n , St. Peters- 
burg, 18G1. 2 vol. in 4". 

Aug. A h 1 q u i s t , Versuch einev Mo kscha- Mo r d lo inisc h e n 
Grammatik nehst Texten und WdrterverzeicJmiss^ St. Petersburg, 
1861. 8«. 

The same author has published a Wotic Grammar in the 
Acta Societatis scientiarum Fennicae^ tom. V. 

C. F. Schlenker (Church Miss.), Collection of Temne 
Traditions, Fables and Proverbs. 1861. 



310 



POSTSCRIPT. 



H. Hahn (Rhen. Miss.), Omahungi nomamho omatororoa 
Uomambo oa Mukuru uetestamente ekuru nepe pura oviprente 
ovingi^ Giitersloh, 1861. 

The same: Omahongise iioholeza Motyi-herero. 1861. 

R. L 6 p s i u s 5 Ueher die Arahischen Sprachlaute imd deren 
Umschrift, mid ilber den liarten i Vocal. (Abhandl. der Ber- 
liner Academie, 1861.) 

J. F. Schon (Church M. Soc), Grammar of the Haiisa 
language, London, 1862. 

H. Barth, Collection of Vocabularies of Central- African 
languages^ 1^* Part, 1862. of the Kanuri^ Teda, Hausa^ Ful- 
fulde, Sonyai^ L6go7ie, Wdndala, Bdgrimma, and 7kfa6a- lan- 
guages. 

Dr. Fr. Miiller, Beitrdge zur Lautlehre der Neupersi- 
schen Sprache, Wien, 1862. (from the Sitzungsberichte der Phil. 
Hist. Classe der Kaiserl. Akad. d. Wiss., vol. xxxix.) 

The same, Ueber die Sprache der Avghdnen (^Pajto). 
Wien, 1862. (Vol. xl.); IP Part, 1863. (Vol. xlii.) 

Dr. W. Bleek, A ComjJarative Grammar of South Afri- 
can languages Parti. London. 1862. 

The Standard Alphabet has also been introduced in the 
great Map in four parts of the Austrian Empire with 
its manyfold countries of diflPerent languages, edited by Ar- 
taria in Vienna, 1862; and Prof. Augustus Petermann 
in Gotha writes to us, that he has the same intention for his 
own future Maps. 

We have also the satisfaction to refer to a detailed review 
and recommendation of the Standard Alphabet by Prof. Wil- 
liam D. Whitney, the eminent Sanskrit scholar, in New 
Haven, Yale College: On Lepsiuss Standard Alphabet (from 
the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VII. 1862). 
Some of the deficiencies, which he points out in the first 
Edition, had been already removed in the present Edition, 
before his pamphlet reached us. 



! 



POSTSCRIPT. 311 

Dr. Fr. Miiller, Ze?id-Studien, Wien , 1863. (Sitzungs- 
herichte etc. Vol. XL.) 

The same J Beitrdge zur Lauilehre der Armenischen 
Sprache, Wien, 1863. (Vol. xli.) 

The same, Beitrdge zur Lautlehre des Ossetischen. Wien, 
1863. (Vol. XLI.) 

R. Lepsiiis, Das ursprungliche Zendalpliahet, Berlin, 
1863. 4«. iAbhandl d. Akad. 1862.) 

The same, Ueber das Lautsystem der Persisclien Keil- 
schrift, Berlin, 1863. 4°. {Abh. 1862.) 

In order to inform the reader as to the more or less reliable 
means, which were at the disposal of the author, respecting 
the apprehension of the sounds of those living languages, which 
are discussed in the present pamphlet , the following remarks 
may here not be out of place. The author has had the opportunity 
of learning directly from intelligent natives the pronunciation 
oi i\iQ Armenian, Serbian, Russian^ ChesMan {Bohemian) ^ Polish,^ 
Rumanian ( Wallachian)^ Hebrew^ Arabic^ Coptic, Beja (Bisari), 
Galla, Turkish, Madyaric, Japanese , Zidu-Kafir , Kongara {Dar- 
Fur), Nuba; he conversed orally with the following learned 
gentlemen, who had long resided in the respective countries 
and were practically acquainted with their languages: on most 
of the Sa9iskritic languages, spoken actually in India, with the 
Rev. Dr. Trumpp (see above p. 19); on the Pasto or Afydn 
with the same, whose last Indian residence was for several years 
Peshawer, where he mastered this language completely; on the 
modern Persian, Ossetia7i, Turkish, Georgian with the Prussian 
Consul at Jerusalem Dr. G. Rosen, late interpreter at the 
Prussian Embassy in Constantinople, and author of gram- 
matical Sketches on the Georgian and the Ossetian languages, 
which he studied in their respective countries; on the Slavonic 
languages with Prof. Miklosich in Vienna; on the Rumanian 
with the highly accomplished Princes Al. and Matth. Stourdza, 
as well as with Mr. Campianu, the learned author of a 



312 POSTSCRIPT. 

Rumanian Grammar; on the Welsh or Kimri with one of the 
best Welsh scholars, Karl Meyer, in Berlin itself; on the 
Amharic with the Rev. C. W. Isenberg, Church Missionary 
in Bombay; on the llama and Iho with the Rev. J. F. Schon, 
formerly Church Missionary at Sierra Leone , nOw in England ; 
on the Mordvinian with Dr. A hi qui st in Helsingfors; on the 
diflferent Chinese dialects, especially the Mandarinic^ Hok-lo^ 
and Hak'ka, with the Revs. J. Go ugh and T. M'Clatchie, 
late Church Missionaries in China, as well as with the Rev. 
Lechler, Basle Missionary, who resided eleven years first 
in Tsau-tseu, afterwards in Hon-kon^ and the Rev. A. Krone, 
Rhenish Missionary in China; on the Thai or Siamese with 
Mr. Th. von Bunsen, of the Prussian East -Asiatic Expe- 
dition , who was kind enough to inquire into this hitherto 
most obscure language expressly according to our views and 
at our request ; on the Yukagiric and Tus with Prof. S c h i e f - 
ner of Petersburg; on the Albanian with J. G. von Hahn, 
the learned editor of the Albanian Researches, the Austrian 
Consul at Syra, who formerly resided several years in 
Albania; on the Makassar and Bugis with Dr. B. F. Matthes, 
Agent of the Amsterdam Bible Society in Makassar; on the 
Makua (Mpsambiqne) with Prof. Peters in Berlin, who re- 
sided five years in Mosambique ; on the Herero with the Rev. 
H. Hahn, Rhenish Missionary among the Herero; on the Vei 
and Kcimiri (Bornu) with the Rev. S. W. Kolle, Church Mis- 
sionary; on the jFV^^ with the Rev. C. L. Rei chard t. Church 
Missionary at Sierra Leone. The author has also been in literary 
communication on the sounds of the Kurd and the Kazak or 
Kirghiz with Mr. Peter Lerch; on the Tamil with the late 
Rev. L. B. E. Schmid formerly connected with the Church 
Miss. Soc. in South India, and for many years resident in 
Ottacamund; on the Tibetan with the Rev. H. A. Jaschke, 
Miss, of the United Brethren atKye-lan; on the Sudheli with 
the Rev, Dr. Krapf, in Kornthal, late Church Missionary; 



P0ST>SCR1PT. 313 

on the Ewe with the JRev. J. B. Schlegel, of the North 
German Miss. Soc. at Bremen^ on the Slave Coast. 

Lastly we have to mention that we have been most cour- 
teously seconded in our endeavours for exhibiting the Native 
Alphabets. Besides the types furnished to us by the 
Printing-office of the Berlin Academy or forwarded to us 
from Mr. G. M. Watts iu London, whose private entreprise 
in this department must not be overlooked; we have been 
enabled to make use of the types of Mr. Tettenrode in 
Amsterdam for the Battak , Mandailing ^ Makassar and Bugis 
languages. Dr. Land, Secretary to the Netherland Bible 
Society at Amsterdam, was kind enough to send them to 
us, accompanied by his explanations. We owe to the Rev. 
Dan Beach Bradley of the Amer. Miss. Assoc, the Sia- 
mese types , which he had the kindness to send to us through 
Mr. de Bunsen. But most of all we have to thank Mr. 
Alois Auer, Director of the Imperial Printing-office at 
Vienna, for the praiseworthy liberality, w4th which he has 
placed the excellent Collection of foreign types, the result of 
his intelligent labours since many years, at our disposal. We 
are obliged to him for the types of the Pdll^ Giijardtl^ Pan- 
jdbl, Bangdli^ TJriya^ Old Slovenian^ Cyrillian^ ^§'§^-> Amharic, 
Mdseq^ Manju^ Mongolian ^ Kamhoja, Burmese^ Japanese, Ja- 
vanese, and Chiroki. 

In the course of the printing, arduous and full of inter- 
ruptions as it was, several mistakes and misprints have hap- 
pened, which we will partly rectify here. 

P. 1, lin. 18, read: uncontroverted. P. 3, 14; anrubutasi. 
P. 6, 15: Estnischen; 1. 18: Helsingfors. P. 7, last line, expunge: 
(See— Alphabet). P. 8, 22: cf. p. 71. P. 17, 3: come. P. 26, 12: 
entirely; 1. 13: characterises. P. 27, 19: the Vei and the Bornu. 
P. 30, note: Essay. P. 32, 5: recommends. P. 35, 6: ap- 
pliquee. P. 41, 8: Sudheli. P. 48, 28: as a^ m. Expunge 
note 2. P. 52, 16: a lohat, hot; 1. 21: w liood. P. 54, note, 1. 6: 

X 



314 POSTSCRIPT. 

Alanju, Mongolian^ Kalmuk. P. 55, 7: See also the Livonian 
p. 223. P. 58, 16 expunge: which — system /; 1. 28: Sla- 
vonic I. P. 59, 18: different. P. m, 11: modern Greek y, 
before «, o, w, or, and the consonants {y before £, ?-; , i 
being pronounced / = ?/). P. i^^^^ 9 expunge: Sanskrit*^. P. 71, 
7: Cf. p. 161; 1. 24: Carey. P. 75, 11: see. P. 77, 2 ex- 
punge: z chin, mandar. Uz:, 1. 12 after {yain) add: mod. greek 
ayaK>6g\ 1. 23 add behind iv engl. loe: tp germ. TFzW. P. 80, 
not. 2, expunge: We cannot till i', and in the last line but one 
read: work (p. 4, 15. 34). P. 81, note, 1. 5: the clicks before 
these letters. P. 82, note, 1. 3: declare ourselves. P. 89, 1: 
into. P. 90, 10: all. P. 94, 8: nasahzation; 1. 15: We; 1. 30: view 
of the ancient. P. 99, 4: wishes; 1. 8: "^ (ks) and "^ ((jn)', 1. 21 : 

yazcili or »,;£ , yazztcah\ last 1. but one: Kdyathi. P. 107, 
16: which Is derived. P. 109, 4: Balbodh. P. 114, 1: Pako, 
P. 117 put ? ^ behind ^'O eO ; 1. 9: Ligatures. P. 121, 9: 
-C y. P. 123, 24: Cf. p. 311. P. 124, 9: ya,i,u', 1. 10: 
L,;,{„) . ra,i Vit; 1. 11: Za,0),n . wi. P. 125, 3^^ 1. from the end: 
datiija. P. 127, 21: the Romance. P. 129, 12: Cf. p. 311. 
P. 131, 16: ^(6) d{z). P. 136, Spec. 1. 1. 2: he, se; 1. 9: 
e e I 0, P. 138, 12: Jc' (j /c. P. 143, 1: remarks; 1. 15: 
the a and e . . , . are; 1. 20: diphthongal, not dissyllabic. 
P. 144, 16: I = y i i (. P. 149, 7 from below: bestows. 
P. 156, 17: weak. P. 157: Hard vowels: a, o, u, i. P. 160, 
16: n r t p'. P. 161, 13, affix; 1. 19: ancient and modern 
Asiatic languages. P. 165, 4^'* 1. from below: Si a fost. P. 168, 
23: in use. P. 173, 8^ 1. from below: s L P. 174, 21: We- 
hdmres; 6*'* 1. from below: Wayya^as. P. 188, 3: Ua, ga. 
P. 189, 2: Himyaritic. P. 191 and 192, write 6^ instead of 5. 
P. 198, 16: drops. P. 200, on the end: Matth. 2, 1. 2. P. 202: 
t d ". P. 203, 3: descendants. P. 204, 6: n\ 1. 15 expunge: z. 
P. 205: Ta-Mclseq (Masiy). P. 206, 12: Ta-Maseq, Ta-Maseyt 
P. 209, 10\ e u i\ 1. 11: Write (i) instead of fw^, and likewise 
p. 210; after the Specim.cn add: Langles, Alphabet Mantschou, 



POSTSCRIPT. 315 

p. 158, sqq. P. 218, 12: r I I P. 233,, 1: Yeurtliai>. P. 243, 
15: it I, if. P. 252, 4^'M. from below: The letters .... where g i is. 
P. 253. According to Prof. Schiefner's Versucli ilber die Thusch- 
Sprache oder die Khistische Muiidart in Thuschetien in the Me- 
moires de VAcad. des Sc. de St. Peters boicrg^ VI. Ser. Sc. Polit. 
etc. T. IX, (in which he writes ^, f, 'p instead of M, ^Zt, ph) 
it seems that his 6 and c belong to our third , 6 and c to our 
first column. P. 252, 6 f. b.: feeble; 1. 1 f. b.: pronounceable. 
P. 255, 2^ 1. from below: ^ d s z. P. 271, 5 f. b.: newly; 
1. 2 f. b.: feel. P. 275, 14: Clarke (Baptist Miss,). P. 276—278: 
Yomha instead of Yoraha. P. 280. 3: blew. P. 288, 4; Ron- 
gdra^ and likewise 1. 4 from below. P. 292, 3 from below: 
Miss, of the Amer. Board of Comm. P. 295, 23: of the Chi- 
nese, the Tatarian and Slavonic languages. 



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